China's Bank of Communications eyes 3.3 billion dollars in IPO

Apr 24, 2007, 10:11 GMT

   Beijing - China's Bank of Communications (BoCom) hopes to raise up to 25.2 billion yuan (3.3 billion dollars) from an initial public offering of yuan-denominated A shares in Shanghai, local media said Tuesday.

China's fifth-largest lender is offering 3.19 billion shares in Shanghai at 7 to 7.9 yuan per share, the Shanghai Daily newspaper quoted the bank as saying in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The share price offered was below the expected range of 8.5 to 9 yuan, the newspaper quoted China Securities analyst She Minhua as saying.

She and other analysts expected a big rise in the price of the shares when they begin trading on May 15.

The shares account for 6.51 per cent of the Shanghai-based bank's total stock of 48.99 billion shares.

'BoCom is the only big state-owned bank which has no obstacles in developing further and the only one among the big banks that is gaining more market share,' the newspaper quoted Haitong Securities analyst Qiu Zhicheng as saying.

HSBC owns 19.99 per cent of the bank, which has 2,600 branches in China and went public in Hong Kong in June 2005.

   BoCom joins China Citic Bank in taking advantage of a rally in the Chinese stock market.

   China Citic Bank sold shares valued at 5.4 billion dollars in Shanghai and Hong Kong last weekend in the world's biggest initial public offering this year.