Home Credit to test Hong Kong IPO market as protests convulse city

HONG KONG, Sept 9 (Reuters): Consumer lender Home Credit is poised to offer the biggest test of Hong Kong's capital markets since China's Alibaba delayed plans for a $15 billion listing last month because of the political turmoil engulfing the city.

The Prague-based lender, which has a sizeable Chinese business, could launch its initial public offering as soon as this month, and is seeking to raise more than $1 billion from the offering in the first of a series of significant IPOs planned in the city.

Hong Kong's markets have been weakened by frequently violent pro-democracy protests and political turmoil over the past three months, slashing a 12 per cent gain for the year to June on the blue-chip Hang Seng Index .HIS to a 3 per cent positive performance by Monday. By contrast the benchmark US S&P 500 .SPI is up 18.8 per cent so far this year.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators in the Central business district and the upmarket Causeway Bay shopping district on Sunday, as the city endures its worst social unrest since its handover from British rule to China in 1997.

Last month, Alibaba dealt the city's investment professionals a blow when it delayed plans for a $15 billion listing in Hong Kong, choosing to hold off until the city's politics and its markets had stabilized, Reuters reported.