More mega IPOs and new airline routes to the US

China Construction Bank’s A share began trading yesterday. The ￥6.45 IPO closed at ￥8.53 , a whopping 32 percent gain, eye popping in any Western markets, but here in China, a big yawn. Two other smaller companies went public on the same day, both advanced 200 percent plus, cha-ching! CCB was the largest China IPO to date(￥58 billion), but that title will soon belong to Shenhua Energy, the nation’s largest coal miner. The offering attracted a record ￥2.6 trillion(USD $355 billion) of funds looking to buy shares. The actual amount raised, based on projected ￥37/share and 1.8 billion shares offered would fall somewhere in the neighborhood of ￥66.6 billion, still a lot of zeros.

On Tuesday, the WTO established an expert panel to probe US complaints that China was not doing enough to protect intellectual property rights. No word whether Meizu’s J. Wong would be called to testify in front of the panel.

While US Department of Commerce wags its finger at China, its Department of Transportation goes business as usual. Also on Tuesday, the DoT gave Delta Airline the go-ahead to begin non-stop service between Atlanta and Shanghai, first of six new routes created between the two countries. San Francisco to Guangzhou on United, Philadelphia to Beijing on US Airways, Newark to Shanghai on Continental, Chicago to Beijing on American, and Detroit to Shanghai on Northwest will go into operation between now and 2009.

Jay Sheng is Shanghaiist's Business Editor. Email tips, news and gossip about business in Shanghai and China to biz at shanghaiist.com.