Shares of Singapore’s Global Logistic Properties <GLPL.SI> surged 10 percent on its market debut on Monday, with investors attracted to the counter as a proxy for China’s trade growth, analysts said.

GLP’s $3.9 billion share offering, which was 12 times subscribed, makes it Singapore’s second-largest IPO after Singapore Telecommunications’ <STEL.SI> S$4 billion share offering in 1993.

 

The unit of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC [GIC.UL], led by former ProLogis CEO Jeffrey Schwartz, owns over 290 logistics properties across China and Japan, making it well-positioned to ride on the coat tails of China’s industrial production boom and economic growth.

 

“GLP has a very strong sponsor behind in the form of GIC. Its portfolio is well-positioned to ride through China’s growth in the logistics market,” said Vikrant Pandey, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian.

 

The share offering from GLP is among several large IPOs in Asia that take place in coming weeks. These include AIA, the Asian life insurance arm of American International Group and a proposed US$4.2 billion ($5.46 billion) offering by Malaysia’s Petronas Chemicals.

 

At around 0110 GMT, GLP shares were traded at $2.16, with over 122 million shares changing hands.

 

The firm said it sold 1.17 billion shares to investors at $1.96 each, raising about $3.9 billion in gross proceeds, which will be used for its expansion plans in China and Japan.

 

“The growth is going to come from China, which accounts for about 30 percent of their portfolio. So it’s a medium to long term play on the growth in China, funded by the high yields (from Japan properties),” Pandey said.

 

Citigroup Global Markets Singapore and JP Morgan were the joint global coordinators and issue managers for the share offer, GLP said.