2 IPOs To Signal US Desire For China Investments

TALI ARBEL

NEW YORK (AP) — Two Chinese IPOs expected to start trading this week are going to be a gauge for Americans' taste for Beijing's offerings, some of which have flopped this fall.

Real estate database and consulting company China Real Estate Information Corp. could raise as much as $248.4 million in an initial public offering of U.S.-traded shares, expected to launch Thursday.

The 18 million American depositary shares are expected to price between $11.80 and $13.80 each, and would equal nearly 13 percent of stock outstanding.

The offering comes on the heels of what one IPO watcher calls the year's most disappointing deal. Scott Sweet, senior managing partner at IPO Boutique, said that had the $1 billion IPO of Chinese video game company Shanda Games Ltd. in late September gotten a warmer reception, investors "would be all over" China Real Estate, one of the country's biggest providers of information on land and buildings. Shanda's shares dropped 14 percent on its first trading day and closed Monday still below its issuing range.

Recent Hong Kong IPOs, including some big Chinese real estate developers, also didn't do as well as expected.