I'm not sure who gets the best deal here. Do these listings of state assets mean that China is taking baby steps towards an open democratic capitalistic society or does this mean foreign countries will be even more muted in their criticisms of China for fear of jeopardising the business interests of their citizens.

AgBank IPO on track to be world's largest
June 24, 2010 - 8:57AM
               
Heavyweight investors, including Qatar’s investment fund, have stumped up $US5.45 billion ($6.26 billion) for the Agricultural Bank of China IPO even before the share sale officially starts.
The offering, to begin on Thursday, is on track to become the world’s biggest, with pre-sale estimates soaring as high as $US28 billion, outpacing the $US22 billion offering by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2006.
Dutch financial-services firm Rabobank will write a cheque for $US250 million, while Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings is buying about $US200 million of shares, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing unnamed sources.

Seven Group Holdings, a media-to-heavy equipment firm controlled by billionaire Kerry Stokes, said Wednesday it is investing $US250 million in the IPO which will see the last of China’s big four banks float its shares.
The stock is slated to begin trading in Hong Kong and Shanghai next month.
The Qatar Investment Authority is set to be the single biggest investor with plans to buy $US2.8 billion worth of shares, Dow Jones said. The Kuwait Investment Authority will invest between $US500 million and $US1 billion in the share sale.
US food giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) will buy between $US100 million and $US200 million worth of AgBank shares.
ADM is one of the world’s biggest food companies which produces goods from cottonseed and peanuts to ethanol and animal feed.
Tourism monopoly China Travel Services Group plans to invest $US150 million while state-run consumer group China Resources (Holdings) is set to invest $US200 million, Dow Jones said.
AFP
Link here:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/a ... -20100624-z03f.html

These China IPOs have for quite some time been pre-sold and placed to foreign institutions before they're traded in the market. There are plenty of state owned companies listed on the HK Stock Exchange, biggest being the ICBC Bank and China Mobile and big chunks of these are held by sovereign and other pension funds, in some cases the shares were allocated before the actual listing.

The shares usually go up on the first day of trading and who ever received a pre listing allocation would have made good gains in their portfolio but these allocated shares usually have restrictions, a lock in of 6 months to one year.

[ Last edited by  geoduck at 24-6-2010 09:19 ]