A UNIT of Sinopec Group and brokerage China Galaxy Securities are launching Hong Kong IPOs today seeking to raise up to US$3.5 billion in total, injecting life into Asia's moribund IPO markets where deal values more than halved in the first quarter of this year.

The massive initial public offerings have been eagerly anticipated in Hong Kong and their success could trigger a wave of other deals, ranging from hotel operators to banks looking to sell new shares in coming months.

Sinopec Engineering (Group), a unit of Asia's largest oil refiner Sinopec, is offering 1.33 billion shares in an indicative range of HK$9.80 to HK$13.10 each, putting the deal value at up to HK$17.4 billion (US$$2.24 billion), sources said yesterday.

At the top end, the deal would be Hong Kong's largest IPO since People's Insurance Co (Group) of China raised US$3.56 billion in late November.

The offer values Sinopec Engineering at 9-12 times its forecast earnings in 2013, said the sources, who declined to be identified because details of the deal are not yet public.

China Galaxy Securities, whose larger rivals include CITIC Securities and Haitong Securities, is offering about 1.5 billion shares in an indicative range of HK$4.99 to HK$6.77 each, the sources said. The range is equivalent to a price-to-book ratio of 1.19-1.49 times.

The company initially planned for a dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong, but gave up plans for a simultaneous offering on the Chinese mainland after the securities regulator froze IPO approvals late last year.

The two deals underscore a pick-up in activity after IPO issuance in Asia excluding Japan plunged 56 percent to US$3.3 billion in the first quarter, making it the worst start to a year for new share listings since the first quarter of 2009, according to Thomson Reuters data.

IPOs in Hong Kong are down 20 percent so far in 2013 from the same period of 2012 to US$1.05 billion, data showed. After holding the crown of global IPO hub for several years, the city had US$7.72 billion worth of deals in 2012, the lowest volume since the 2008 global financial meltdown.

Hong Kong's lackluster performance is in sharp contrast to Southeast Asia, where a string of deals including BTS Infrastructure Fund and Temasek Holdings-backed Mapletree China REIT have kept bankers busy.

The two deals rank as Asia's biggest IPOs this year.