MTR Corp unveils IPO | FinanceAsia

Hong Kong's great and good toasted the launch of the offering with champagne, while the huge assembled press, cordoned off behind red ropes, heard how the government wants to make the Hong Kong public individual stakeholders in the railway corporation. Describing the MTR as one of the world's few profitable mass transit systems, Finance Secretary Donald Tsang said that a 20% sell-down might bring "further improvements in efficiency, productivity and flexibility", which is "what Hong Kong's all about".

Concluding that privatization will allow investors to own, "a part of the very fabric of Hong Kong and its future", Tsang outlined a series of incentives that will tilt the HK$8 billion ($1.03 billion) to HK$9.38 billion ($1.21 billion) offering heavily in favour of the Hong Kong general public. Hence, in contrast to the standard 10% minimum placement to retail, bankers say that this time round there will be a 20% threshold.