Silk Road Fund to invest $100m in Chinese company's IPO

View of a signboard of CICC (China International Capital Corporation) in Shanghai, China, July 22, 2014. [Photo/IC]

Silk Road Fund is set to invest $100 million in China International Capital Corp's initial public offering in Hong Kong.

The first Sino-foreign investment bank and its existing shareholder National Council for Social Security Fund are offering a combined 611.4 million shares at HK$9.12 to HK$10.28 apiece, raising as much as $811 million, according to the company's prospectus.

It is the first time that the Silk Road Fund invested in an initial public offering.

Founded in 2014, the fund aims to provide investment and financing support to infrastructure, resources, industrial cooperation and other projects related to connectivity for countries along the "Belt and Road".

The Silk Road fund signed its first investment deal in April, committing to the construction of a $1.65 billion Karot hydropower plant along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The project, carried out by the China Three Gorges Corporation, is expected to be completed by 2020.

Share sales are open from Tuesday to Friday and CICC will start trading at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on November 9 under the ticker 3908, according to the prospectus. New shares account for 90.9 percent of the IPO.

Ten cornerstone investors have committed to buy $465 million of shares in the offering, said the document. Besides the Silk Road Fund, Hong Kong-based fund company Value Partners Group is investing $50 million, while an investment arm of Xinhua News Agency is buying $30 million.

State-owned China Mobile Communications Corp, China General Nuclear Power Corp, Commercial Aircraft Corp and Baosteel Group each agreed to purchase $50 million worth of CICC shares. China's high-speed train producer CRRC Corp is investing $30 million.

Cornerstone investors typically agree to lock their shares holding for six months in return for early, guaranteed allocation.

CICC is raising money to expand its equity sales and trading, wealth management and international businesses, said the investment bank.

Agencies contributed to this story.