Shares in Australia’s biggest issue in 13 years, QR National, closed their first day of trading up 10c or 4% at $2.65, giving institutions a 10c a share gain on the day and small shareholders 20c.
The company started trading at $2.54 a share on the ASX at midday yesterday, hit a high of $2.68 before dipping to its closing level.
The issue price of $2.55 a share for big shareholders was at the lower end of the Queensland government’s target of between $2.50 and $3.
Retail investors paid $2.45 after receiving a discount to institutions.
Some 476.3 million shares changed hands, worth more than $1.2 billion yesterday.
The first day is in complete contrast to the float a year ago by Myer, which failed to reach its issue price on day one ($4.10) and hasn’t managed since.
With the wider market up 0.3% on the day, QR National was an outperformer.
Investors will now be looking at whether float’s investment bank managers will use the greenshoe option to support the stock over the next 30 days.
That allows them to buy back up to 6% of the stock to keep it stable up to December 21.
The London-based activist hedge fund – the Children’s Investment Fund Management – has emerged as the second-biggest shareholder in QR National with a 6.1% stake, after the Queensland government with 34 % (which will rise for every share bought under the greenshoe option).
First State Investments is the third-largest with 5.1%, but six nominee accounts of HSBC, the big global bank, control around 12.2% of the issued shares.
Much of the interest in QR National came from offshore investors with Australian institutions taking up just 54% of the institutional allocation.
Brokers are reporting that with QR National onto the markets, German construction group, Bilfinger is looking to reactivate its $1 billion float of the local arm called Valemus.
That IPO was pulled in July in the wake of the first round of euro driven instability.
Valemus could come to market by March, according to the reports.
