DEALTALK - Asian IPO fatigue hits India, elsewhere

By Narayanan Somasundaram and Prashant Mehra

HONG KONG/MUMBAI (Reuters) - An ache has hit the belly of investors who feasted on initial public offerings in Asia, in a sign the primary equity window that saw a big revival two quarters ago is begining to quickly shut.

The indigestion is becoming a familiar trend across India, China and Australia, making a case for firms forming a long IPO pipeline to trim their high price expectations.

More than 30 companies plan to list in either the Hong Kong and Indian markets over the next few months.

The Hong Kong list includes big names such as Rusal, Las Vegas Sands and China Minsheng Banking Corp, and a clutch of property firms. Reliance Infratel, a unit of Reliance Communications, and Vedanta's Sterlite Energy are among big Indian offers planned.

"The pricing has been pretty aggressive. Hopefully this market volatility will prevent some of them from launching their IPOs now," said Ho Yin Pong, a Hong Kong-based portfolio manager at RCM Asia Pacific.

He feels he can pick up the same stocks, especially the Indian ones, cheaper in the secondary market.

Last week, Deutsche Bank pulled out all stops to cover a $100 million IPO of Indian cable television firm Den Networks, which managed to scramble through in the final hours with huge support from India's state run life insurance giant.

"That was a real close one. DB (Deutsche Bank) did rally us to bail out the issue," an official at Life Insurance Corp of India, which put in bids for nearly a quarter of Den Networks, said on the condition of anonymity.