(Yicai Global) May 30 -- Investors have abandoned nearly CNY46 million (USD7 million) worth of shares they subscribed to in Foxconn Industrial Internet, the biggest ever bailout from a company planning to list on the Chinese mainland.

Subscribers flunked on more than 3.3 million shares they had agreed to purchase on- and offline, according to data published yesterday by the firm, a unit under Hon Hai Precision Industry, the main iPhone contractor better known as Foxconn. Foxconn Industrial is offering up to 1.97 billion shares at CNY13.77 (USD2.14) each, according to a May 22 filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

China began allowing investors to subscribe to shares without making a pre-payment at the start of 2016. Since then, the value of abandoned shares has positively correlated with the size of an issue. Shenzhen-based Foxconn Industrial is on track to list in Shanghai for CNY27 billion (USD4.3 billion), the biggest initial public offering in three years and the most valuable since the credit subscription model began.

Lead underwriter China International Capital will pick up the abandoned shares and could land itself an unexpected windfall. Huatai Securities and Guotai Junan Securities jointly led the underwriting of WuXi AppTec's CNY2.3-billion (USD354-million) IPO earlier this month, and picked up 330,000 shares from non-paying subscribers. The extra shares had gained CNY33.6 million in value as of 2.10 p.m. in Shanghai today.

Editor: James Boynton