Beijing Media offer oversubscribed

Beijing Media Corp, the first state-owned newspaper company to list offshore, was heavily oversubscribed, some brokers saying the grey market had already priced the stock as high as HK$23 (US$2.95), a 21% premium to its offer price of HK$18.95. The H-share offer drew nearly 20,000 retail investors seeking a total of 2.014 billion shares — over 400 times the retail allotment. Brokers said they expected quick profit taking by retail investors, freeing up shares for institutions looking to meet original quota targets.