The parent firm of Sinopec Corporation (0368) - Sinopec Group - plans to spin off its oilfield engineering services business on the main board this year.

The unit is expected to raise as much as HK$10 billion and the initial public offering process is set to begin in March.

China International Capital Corporation is the main sponsor of the IPO.

Applications will be handled in the middle of the year and bookbuilding is slated for October.

The state-owned oil giant hopes to consolidate its onshore and offshore subsidiaries - which are offering engineering services - into an integrated firm and then list the entity in Hong Kong.

The consolidated firm is expected to be valued at more than three times China Oilfield Services (2883) - a unit of CNOOC Ltd (0883) - another state- owned petroleum giant.

Market capitalization of China Oilfield Services, which mainly offers engineering services to offshore oil companies, hit HK$78.5 billion yesterday.

In other action, Perfect Shape (PRC) Holdings is to become Hong Kong's first IPO in the Year of the Dragon. Trading is expected start on February 10.

The slimming and beauty service provider slashed its fund-raising target by more than 51 percent to HK$220 million.

Perfect Shape will open its retail book today. Minimum spending for one board lot of 4,000 shares is HK$3,555.48.

But brokers expect a moderate response from retail investors.

"The equity market is still full of uncertainties, and investors will wait and see how the next IPOs fare,"said Bright Smart Securities chief executive officer Nelson Chan Kai-fung. "Listing will be easier if the Hang Seng Index could stay above 20,000 during the first quarter."

Chan said Smart Securities has not prepared extra margin orders for Perfect Shape.

Separately, Haitong Securities will reconsider its H-share selling plan after releasing 2011 results in March.

In November, the mainland brokerage tried to raise up to HK$13 billion by selling 1.23 billion shares.