Bank of China Aviation in $1.1 bn IPO

BOC Aviation, an arm of Bank of China, is scheduled to debut on the Hong Kong exchange Wednesday after raising HK$8.7 billion ($1.1 billion) in an initial public offering, according to Bloomberg. The company sold new and existing shares at HK$42 apiece in Asia’s second-biggest IPO this year, and it plans to use the proceeds to help pay for new planes. As airlines serving Asia-Pacific move to triple their fleet, they’re finding it can be cheaper to lease jets instead of buying them. And for BOC, the leasing business can be more lucrative than running an airline. Airlines in Asia will fly more than 16,000 planes within 20 years, almost tripling the current number, according to estimates by Boeing.