Blackstone buys 40% stake in China mall owner

Following Meituan-Dianping and Haidilao, the two candidates have kicked off their listings, targeting a combined $1.15 billion in what looks set to be a busy month of Hong Kong IPOs.

The Fujian property developer battled through volatile markets to price the year's first initial public offering in Hong Kong.

Belatedly following six bigger rivals, the Shanghai-based brokerage is to tap the Hong Kong market for funding with the city’s biggest IPO so far this year. The timing could be propitious.

The US investment giant exceeded its $10bn target after an active 24 months of deals in the region, especially in India and Japan.

The UK bank said the sale was part of its "simplification" strategy and follows the sale of its life insurance business in Singapore to Allianz and Indonesian retail book to OCBC; Blackstone described the deal as "the largest home loan portfolio transaction globally".

Robust demand leaves both the retail and institutional tranches heavily oversubscribed and allows the state-owned engineering contractor to raise $500 million from the offering.