SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - The long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) of Wilmar International's China unit, Yihai Kerry Arawana (YKA), has successfully raised about 13.93 billion yuan (S$2.81 billion) after the close of applications on Sept 25, said the company in a bourse filing.

Wilmar had on Sept 24 said that the listing is expected to raise 13.9 billion yuan, with each YKA share at an issue price of 25.7 yuan.

Investors appeared upbeat about the proposed listing of YKA on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange ChiNext Board, resulting in the IPO shares being oversubscribed.

IPO shares for offline investors were oversubscribed by 600.5 times, raising 5.82 billion yuan. Shares for online retail investors were also oversubscribed by about 1,750 times, raising 3.90 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, strategic investors accounted for 4.18 billion yuan. Wilmar had previously said that these investors would constitute 20 state-owned funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies that have collectively been allocated 30 per cent of the IPO shares. These shares will be subject to a one-year moratorium on transfer, beginning from the first trading date.

Local sovereign wealth fund GIC was among the strategic investors, and was set to be allotted 472.5 million yuan. Other strategic investors include Rongze Investment Company with an allotment amount of 770.9 million yuan and People's Daily Media and Advertising Company with an allotment amount of 397.9 million yuan.

Although the proposed listing is slated to take place by mid-October this year, Wilmar has again stressed that there is "no certainty" that the listing will proceed as it is still subject to prevailing market conditions.

Shares of Wilmar ended the first half of the trading day at $4.41, up one cent or 0.2 per cent.