Largest Chinese commercial bank to start IPO

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest Chinese commercial bank, announced Sunday it will start its initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong on Monday.

The commercial bank said it would issue H-shares in Hong Kong and A-shares in the Chinese Mainland on the same day, the first time for a Chinese Mainland company to list simultaneously in both overseas and mainland markets.

The bank plans to issue 35.39 billion IPO in the overseas market, among which about 33.62 billion will be subscribed by international institutions and 1.77 billion for local investors. The bank's shares expected to start trading on Oct. 27.

ICBC said the price is not decided yet but it will be within 2.56 HK dollars to 3.07 HK dollars per share and with no difference between overseas and mainland markets. It is estimated that if the price per share is 2.81 HK dollars, then the total capital raised through overseas market will be about 77.4 billion HK dollars (9.94 billion U.S. dollars).

Experts here estimated the IPO will be a highlight of the already hot stock market in Hong Kong with the Hang Seng Index surged over 18,000 Friday, one of the highest record in six years, though the benchmark slightly fell afterwards.

Source: Xinhua