May 17 - Hong Kong's luxury second-hand handbag retailer Milan Station was 2,100 times oversubscribed in its initial public offering, making its share sale the city's hottest ever, reports said Tuesday.

Hong Kong handbag retailer Milan Station

The firm was aiming to raise about HK$270 million ($34.7 million) from its offer, but orders worth around HK$58 billion were placed, The Standard newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources.

The demand smashed a previous record of 1,702 times oversubscribed set by Tianjin Port Development in 2006.

The paper said about 100,000 Hong Kongers rushed to get their hands on the shares, set to start trading on Monday, with around 700 of the applicants applying to buy the maximum 50 percent of the issue's retail tranche.

A Milan Station spokeswoman refused to comment on the report when contacted by AFP.

The Hong Kong-based retailer is a well-known secondhand luxury handbag retailer in the former British colony with 10 outlets in the city, as well as branches in Beijing, Macau and Taipei.

Milan Station joins a long line of brands seeking to tap cash-rich mainlanders' growing appetite for luxury products. Italian fashion house Prada and upscale handbag maker Coach said they were also eyeing a listing in Hong Kong.

"The size of the (Milan Station) offering is relatively small, therefore it could draw capital easily," Linus Yip, chief strategist at First Shanghai Securities told AFP.

"People think there will be short term trading opportunities. The brand is well known to a lot of Hong Kong people, making it an attractive option," he added.

He said he expected the share to climb 20 percent on its trading debut on Monday, but warned that the stock price could fluctuate heavily in the first two weeks.