Evergrande goes ahead with $780 million IPO

Evergrande Real Estate Group will today launch the roadshow for an initial public offering that could raise as much as HK$6.04 billion $780 million. This is the second time that the residential property developer has tried to go public -- 18 months ago, the company pulled its roadshow due to insufficient demand. The company will be going up against a number of other property IPOs, including Shenzhen's Excellence Real Estate Group.

Evergrande is offering 1.5 billion shares, comprising 900 million primary shares and 611 million secondary shares. Around two-thirds of the secondary shares are coming from the company's chairman and controlling shareholder, Hui Ka Yan, and the rest are...