By Scott Murdoch
HONG KONG (Reuters) -JD Logistics Inc is set to price its shares at HK$40.36 ($5.20), towards the lower end of its indicated range, to raise $3.16 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The firm, spun off from e-commerce major JD (NASDAQ:JD).com Inc, had set a price range of HK$39.36 to HK$43.36 per share, which would have raised $3.4 billion at the top end.
The people declined to be identified as the information has not been announced. JD Logistics did not respond to a request for comment.
Pricing of the deal has been closely watched as a barometer of whether Hong Kong's red-hot IPO market has been impacted by recent global market volatility which has emerged due to the prospect of accelerating inflation in economies worldwide.
JD Logistics sold 609.1 million shares in a deal set to be Hong Kong's second-largest IPO this year after that of Kuaishou Technology which raised $5.4 billion in January.
Kuaishou priced its shares at the peak of its range. Another JD.com spin off, JD Health International Inc, was also at the top when it listed in December.
JD Logistics sold 10% of its total shares in the IPO which, at the bottom of the price range, would value the company at $31.6 billion - versus $34 billion at the top of the range.
Aequitas Research analyst Toh Zhen Zhou, who publishes on Smartkarma, said the lower pricing "shows that investors are being a bit more sensitive towards valuation and that is generally good for the IPO and other IPOs in the pipeline."
JD Logistics' debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on May 28 and secondary market performance will likely be monitored, analysts said, given close rival S.F. Holding Co Ltd has seen its shares slide nearly 23.6% so far this year.
JD.com spun off its logistics unit into a standalone entity in 2017 and then opened up its delivery and warehousing services to third-party companies.
($1 = 7.7621 Hong Kong dollars)
($1 = 6.4341 Chinese yuan)