Haitong to launch $1.5 billion Hong Kong offer on April 17: IFR

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Haitong Securities Co Ltd <600837.SS>, China's No.2 brokerage by assets, is set to launch its up to $1.5 billion Hong Kong share offering as early as April 17, after securing commitments from investors for a large portion of the deal, IFR reported on Thursday.

The company is set to price the deal on April 20, but the schedule might change over the weekend, Thomson Reuters publication IFR said, citing four sources. The sources were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter.

Haitong got approval from the listing committee of the Hong Kong stock exchange last month to move forward with the offer.

The brokerage firm pulled an up to $1.7 billion listing in December due to turmoil in global markets. At the time, the company had $222 million in pledges from two cornerstone investors, private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC and Japan's Chuo Mitsui Trust & Banking Co, a unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc <8309.T>.

Haitong has secured about $600 million in commitments from cornerstone investors in the offer to be launched next week, with "significant demand" also coming from so-called anchor investors, said one source involved in the deal.

Cornerstones back many Asian listings, committing to buy large, guaranteed stakes and agreeing to a lock-up period during which they will not sell their shares. Anchor investors have fewer restrictions on when they can sell the stock.

Citigroup Inc , Credit Suisse AG , Deutsche Bank , JPMorgan and Haitong's own Haitong International are acting as joint global coordinators on the offering.

HSBC Holdings Plc <0005.HK>, Nomura, Standard Chartered Plc and UBS AG were also hired as joint bookrunners. ICBC International was also added to the team of underwriters, IFR reported.

(Reporting by Fiona Lau and Jing Song; Writing by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Ron Popeski)