The world's largest hydropower producer, China Yangtze Power, has launched a secondary listing in London, in a deal hoped to raise up to $3.4 billion. 

The flotation is the third to date and the biggest so far made under the Shanghai-London Stock Connect Scheme, which aims to provide an improved platform for Chinese firms seeking liquidity on global markets while increasing investment opportunities for fund managers seeking greater exposure to Chinese firms.   

The float plans, for an initial offering of 110 million global depository receipts (GDRs), has been made in what has been one of the most rapid timetables for a London based stock market listing. China Yangtze Power operates four hydropower projects along the upper and mid section of the Yangtze River, including the Three Gorges project. The firm has said it plans to use proceeds to pay off debt and fund new investment projects. 

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China analysts have welcomed the flotation, putting it in the context of the greater liberalization of access to Chinese equity markets underway since 2017, when key policy changes were enacted by the People's Bank of China.  

"Where before there were blockages, there were quotas, now all those quotas have gone away," Sherry Madera of Refinitiv Perspectives told CGTN. "It's touching asset management, it's touching banking, securities, brokerage, credit and credit ratings... the path to opening up is very clear," she added.