China Railway Signal prices HK IPO at bottom, raises $1.4 bln-IFR

HONG KONG, Aug 1 (Reuters) - China Railway Signal & Communication Corp (CRSCC), the world's largest builder of rail traffic control systems, raised $1.4 billion after pricing its Hong Kong initial public offering at the bottom of expectations. The company priced the 1.75 billion new shares, or about 20 percent of the enlarged share capital, at HK$6.30 each, after marketing the deal in an indicative range of HK$6.30 to HK$8.00, Thomson Reuters publication IFR said on Saturday, citing people familiar with the plans. The deal will be Hong Kong's second-largest IPO this year after the $2 billion listing of Lenovo Group's parent Legend Holdings Corp in June. It comes on the back of a renewed Chinese government push to bolster rail and other infrastructure investments to help boost the cooling economy, but has also coincided with a plunge in mainland China stock markets of some 30 percent since mid-June. Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and UBS were hired as joint sponsors on the IPO, with Macquarie, BOC International, Goldman Sachs and China Merchants Securities CMB International and Haitong International Securities and Haitong Securities also helping to underwrite the deal. The banks stand to jointly earn up to $23.8 million in commissions from the deal, equivalent to a 1.7 percent underwriting fee, according to the offering prospectus. ($1 = 7.7528 Hong Kong dollars) (Reporting by Fiona Lau of IFR; Writing by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Kim Coghill)