Lenovo parent Legend gets HK approval for up to $2 billion IPO: sources

BEIJING (Reuters) - Legend Holdings Corp, parent of computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd, has won approval from Hong Kong's stock exchange for an initial public offering worth about $2 billion, people with direct knowledge of the plans said on Friday. This would be the largest IPO in the city since property developer Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co Ltd raised $4.04 billion in December and comes amid a boom in capital markets activity. Companies have raised $41 billion from share sales in Hong Kong so far this year, double the amount from the same period in 2014, with the bulk of the issuance coming not from IPOs, but from Shanghai-listed brokerages tapping investors to fund their lending businesses. Legend got the go-ahead from the listing committee of the exchange and will start gauging investors' interest for the IPO on Monday, one of the sources said. The company will start taking orders for the deal in a roadshow starting the week after next. The sources declined to be named because the exchange's decision is not yet public. Legend did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the IPO approval. Legend is the parent of Hong Kong-listed Lenovo, the world's biggest personal computer maker. It also owns Chinese property developer Raycom Real Estate, private equity firm Hony Capital and venture capital firm Legend Capital. China International Capital Corp and UBS AG were hired as joint sponsors for the IPO, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley helping to underwrite the deal, the sources said. (Reporting by Shu Zhang and Ken Wang of IFR; Writing by Elzio Barreto, Editing by Himani Sarkar)