Midea Group Co has started taking investor orders for an up to US$3.50 billion share sale in Hong Kong, what is set to be the city’s biggest listing in more than three years. 

The Foshan-based appliance maker is offering 492.1 million shares at HK$52 to HK$54.80 a piece, according to its listing document on Monday. At the low end of the marketed price range, that represents a 25% discount to the company’s Shenzhen-traded shares last Friday.

The company said it expects to price shares on Sept 13 and list on Sept 17. Bloomberg News previously reported that Midea was set to start taking orders this week.

Cornerstone investors, who agree to keep shares for at least six months, have agreed to buy US$1.26 billion in Midea stock, which is more than a third of the offering. They include a subsidiary of container-shipping company Cosco Shipping Holdings Co and a unit of UBS Asset Management AG.

Midea’s listing would be a welcome boost for Hong Kong, where only US$2.5 billion has been raised in initial public offerings (IPOs) this year, compared with more than US$50 billion in 2020. At the targeted size, Midea’s would be the biggest Hong Kong IPO since JD Logistics Inc raised US$3.6 billion in May 2021. Hong Kong hasn’t hosted a listing that’s raised more than US$1 billion since battery supplier CALB Group Co’s share sale in 2022.

Shares of JD Logistics, the delivery arm of e-commerce firm JD.com Inc, have fallen about 77% since the Hong Kong listing. CALB is down 68% since October 2022. 

Midea’s IPO would be the biggest Chinese listing since state-owned oil-and-gas producer Cnooc Ltd raised US$5 billion in April 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 

Midea, founded in 1968, is China’s largest home-appliance maker. The company, which sells under brands including Midea, Comfee, Eureka and Little Swan, acquired Toshiba Corp’s home-appliance business in 2016 and also owns German robotics firm Kuka AG.

Midea’s first-half net income rose 14% from a year earlier to 20.8 billion yuan, beating analyst estimates. Revenue rose 10% to about 217 billion yuan . Its shares have climbed about 15% this year in Shenzhen. 

China International Capital Corp and Bank of America Corp are joint sponsors of the offering. 

  - Bloomberg