专栏咏竹坊

Mao Geping’s Hong Kong IPO gets lift from regulatory nod

The planned listing by China’s second-ranking domestic cosmetics brand has been approved by the Mainland Chinese securities regulator.

By Edith Terry

In the Sichuan variant of classical Chinese opera, the art of bianlian, or “face changing,” is a stunning trick that sees an actor’s painted mask seemly change with just a twist of the head. Now, one of China’s best-known makeup artists, Mao Geping, himself a former star of the craft, is moving closer to changing the face of his company, Mao Geping Cosmetics Co. Ltd with a transformative IPO that Chinese media say could raise as much as $300 million.

Leading Chinese investment bank CICC is the deal’s sole sponsor, suggesting it will be targeted mostly at Chinese and regional Asian investors who may be familiar wit