INTENSE Chinese demand for initial public offerings (IPOs) on the country’s new stock board is sending valuations for new listings sky-high.

A biotech firm has priced its shares at about 468 times reported earnings, according to a Shanghai Stock Exchange filing. That’s almost triple the most expensive of last week’s inaugural batch of debuts. Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences Co., which was founded in 2001 and focuses on cancer treatments, plans to raise about 1 billion yuan (US$145 million) from the offering, about 27 percent more than its initial target.

In a bid to attract high-growth tech firms to list on domestic exchanges, regulators this year removed an unwritten cap on valuations for companies debuting on the new STAR Market.

Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. was the priciest IPO among the new board’s first batch of 25 stocks, which started trading last week, and has almost tripled in value since listing at 171 times profit.

“The limited supply for the second batch of listings and the overwhelming performance of the first batch have fueled investor enthusiasm,” said Jiang Liangqing, a money manager at Ruisen Capital Management in Beijing. (SD-Agencies)