Wanda Plaza in Changzhou, East China's Jiangsu province Photo: IC

Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co Ltd, China's largest commercial property developer, started the roadshow for its Hong Kong IPO Monday, a move that analysts thought will quicken the pace of expansion for the company.

Wanda Commercial Properties is seeking to raise up to $3.9 billion through the IPO in Hong Kong, which would see it become the world's second-largest pure-play commercial developer behind Simon Property Group from the US, Financial Times reported Monday.

The newspaper reported that if the IPO raises the full $3.9 billion that the group is targeting, it will have a market capitalization just shy of $25 billion, trailing Simon Property's $56 billion but ahead of the $15 billion of Australia's Westfield.

Li Haifeng, public relations manager at Wanda Commercial Properties, declined to disclose details about the IPO when reached by the Global Times Monday, and he noted that updated details about the prospectus, including "some key information," will be released on Tuesday.

Wanda Commercial Properties, which announced its prospectus in September, is seeking to raise between $3.2 billion and $3.86 billion through the IPO, cutting the size of the planned offer by at least one-third as investors balked at the high valuation, according to a Reuters report Friday.

Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) and Och-Ziff Capital Management Group Ltd are among the group of 11 investors that have committed about $2 billion toward Wanda Commercial Properties's Hong Kong IPO, a person with direct knowledge of the matter was quoted by Reuters as saying Saturday.

"Wanda Commercial Properties will be welcomed on the Hong Kong capital market, as investors there always prefer shares of commercial developers in line with their investment habits," Li Daxiao, research director at Shenzhen-based Yingda Securities Co, told the Global Times Monday.

In China, Wanda Commercial Properties is well known for its Wanda Plaza complexes, which include residences, shopping malls, five-star hotels and entertainment facilities such as cinemas.

Analysts thought Wanda Commercial Properties is expected to see a faster expansion after the successful IPO on Hong Kong stock market.

"Since the financing cost from the stock market will be cheaper than other options such as bank loans, Wanda Commercial Properties, which owns heavy fixed assets, will witness its fastest development after its share offering," Wang Yongping, secretary-general of the China Commercial Real Estate Association, told the Global Times Monday.

Unlike in developed countries, where commercial developers have more ways of financing such as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), developers in China, where the commercial properties are less developed, have limited ways of financing, according to Wang.

But Wang also noted that there is a lack of innovation with some projects that Wanda Commercial Properties has developed in some second- and third-tier cities, and further efforts need to be made after it gets listed so as to ensure returns for its investors.

The media generally predicted that Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, will surpass Jack Ma Yun, founder of Alibaba Group, as China's richest man after Wanda Commercial Properties and Wanda Cinema Line Co, a movie theater company that is part of the Wanda Group, get listed.

Wang was ranked as the second-richest man with a fortune of 145 billion yuan ($23.5 billion) in China, and Ma was the richest man with a fortune of 150 billion yuan in 2014, according to the Hurun Rich List.

Wanda Cinema Line received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission for a share offering on the A-share market on November 28.