Lenovo's largest shareholder plans IPO in HK

Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group Ltd, delivers keynote speech at the Lenovo Tech World held on May 28 in Beijing. [Photo/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Legend Holdings Corp, the largest shareholder in Lenovo Group Ltd, is planning to seek approval for an as much as $2 billion initial public offering from the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday, said The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the sources, Legend has hired four banks - China International Capital Corp, UBS AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley - to handle its plan, and if the company gets the go-ahead by Thursday, it will begin sounding out investors for a listing next week, and if the feedback is positive, it will launch its IPO and take orders the following week.

That schedule would mean Legend would list by the end of this month, while the final timetable depends on market conditions, said the report.

Apart from controlling Chinese tech giant Lenovo, which bought International Business Machines Corp's personal-computer business in 2005, "Legend has interests in real estate across China and controls a Chinese private-equity firm - Hony Capital," the report said. 

The firm was established in 1984 by Liu Chuanzhi and 10 other scientific researchers with funding of 200,000 yuan ($32,262) from the Chinese Academy of Science.