There's reason to be cautious about BOC Aviation

Sydney

THERE'S a simple rule for making money out of initial public offerings: Try to be the smart insider selling, not the uninformed outsider buying.

That's worth bearing in mind before piling into the US$1.1 billion sale of new shares in Bank of China's aircraft leasing unit, BOC Aviation. While investors including China Investment Corp, Boeing and Fosun International have already signed up for about US$475 million of the shares on offer, there's good reason to hold back.