GUOTAI Junan Securities has won approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange for its planned US$2 billion share offering, Thomson Reuters publication IFR reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

    The Shanghai-listed brokerage plans to start pre-marketing for the deal as early as this week, in what will be the biggest Hong Kong share sale so far this year. It plans to sell not more than 1.04 billion H shares, excluding a greenshoe option of 15 percent of the base deal.

    Shenzhen-listed Shenzhen Energy Group said last month that it would invest up to US$250 million as a cornerstone investor in Guotai Junan’s offering.

    Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank International and Guotai Junan’s Hong Kong investment banking arm — Guotai Junan International — are joint sponsors of the transaction.

    The proceeds will be used for domestic and foreign securities-related business development and investment, Guotai Junan said in a Shanghai bourse filing in September 2016.

    The brokerage went public in June 2015, raising US$4.8 billion, in what is still the largest listing on the mainland since 2010.

    (SD-Agencies)