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Another Competitor to A2M ...

China BabyFormula Maker Feihe Seeks Up to $1.14 Billion in IPO

China Feihe Ltd., ababy formula producer, started taking investor orders on Monday for its HongKong initial public offering which could raise as much as HK$8.9 billion ($1.14billion).

The Beijing-basedcompany is offering 893.3 million shares at HK$7.50 to HK$10 apiece, accordingto terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg. The price range implied a marketvalue of $8.5 billion to $11.4 billion, the terms show.

The offering wouldat least be Feihe’s second attempt to conduct an IPO in Hong Kong. It hadapplied for a listing in the city in May 2017. The dairy company went privatefrom the New York Stock Exchange in 2013 amid a wave of delistings byU.S.-traded Chinese firms.

China’s babyformula industry met its watershed moment in 2008 when a tainted milk scandalkilled six children and poisoned 300,000 others, spurring demand for productsby international firms over locally-produced ones. The country, in a bid torestore consumer confidence, in June released a plan to increase theoutput of homegrown baby formula.

The government aimsto achieve 60% self-sufficiency rate along with improving quality andbolstering consumer confidence for domestic brands in the country’s $27 billioninfant-formula industry. The newly-announced plan will also support domesticdairy producers in acquiring or setting up overseas bases for milk supply aswell as tightening regulations on milk-powder imports and online salesplatforms.