ICBC to tap market for $6.6bn
ICBC, the world’s most valuable lender, aims to tap investors for up to $6.6bn, sources said, a day after Agricultural Bank of China priced the world’s largest IPO.
AgBank, the last of China’s big banking institutions to go public, is exercising an option to expand the Shanghai portion of its IPO by 15 percent, the bank said yesterday, and if they do the same for the Hong Kong portion, the offer would swell to a record $22bn (£14.5bn).
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which holds the current record for its 2006 IPO of $21.9bn, plans to raise more funds by offering rights to holders of its Hong Kong-listed H-shares, as well as its Shanghai-listed A-shares, said sources with direct knowledge of the deal.
That’s a change from ICBC’s earlier plan, which, according to sources, had a few months ago mandated banks to arrange a $7-$10bn Hong Kong stock offering.
One source said the rights offers still needed approval from the ICBC board, its shareholders and the regulator, so the timing of the offering could be by the end of 2010.
Officials at ICBC were not immediately available for comment.
Big state-owned Chinese banks including Bank of China are seeking to replenish funds depleted by last year’s government-directed lending spree and to meet higher capital levels demanded by regulators.