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Australia Palmer: Talk Of Hong Kong IPO By End Year Is Premature
PERTH -(Dow Jones)- Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer played down media speculation Friday that a US$2 billion-US$3 billion initial public offering of his resources assets in Hong Kong may occur before year end.
"It is a bit premature," Palmer told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.
"Someone may be making inquiries (to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange) or things like that but there is no listing date set," he said.
Palmer was responding to media reports that his long-term strategy of listing some of his Australian iron ore and coal assets may be completed by December.
A report Friday in the South China Morning Post said that investment banks Macquarie Group Ltd. (MQG.AU) and UBS AG (UBS) will handle the IPO, to be called Resourcehouse.
Palmer said that he has not set a "hearing date" with Hong Kong authorities to discuss the IPO.
"We haven't had a hearing with anybody, so there are no immediate plans to list," he said.
Speculation of Palmer's resources IPO first surfaced last year during the mining boom, but the plans were shelved because of the global financial crisis.
-By Stephen Bell, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires;