New China Life Insurance filed a request for the listing with the mainland's insurance regulator last week and plans to submit a request to Hong Kong's bourse by the end of May at the earliest, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing a person familiar with the planned offering. Hong Kong's exchange would then hold hearings to approve the insurer's listing.
The $5.4 billion listing last month by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka shing's Singapore Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, which owns deep water ports in Hong Kong and China, is Asia's biggest IPO so far in 2011. Last week, Swiss commodities giant Glencore announced the world's biggest initial public offering so far this year, with a dual listing in London and Hong Kong to raise up to $11 billion. The southern Chinese city claimed title as the world's biggest IPO hub in 2010, raising more than $51 billion, propelled by Pan-Asian insurer AIA's monster $20.5 billion share sale.