Mumbai:
China Citic Bank Corporation, the country''s eighth-largest
bank, raised $5.4 billion in stock sale in the world''s
biggest stock offer this year, reports quoting market
sources said.
The offer of shares through listing in the Shanghai and
Hong Kong stock markets, raised the targeted maximum,
reports said. The stock sale values the state-owned company
at $28.9 billion.
Beijing-based Citic Bank sold new yuan-denominated shares
in Shanghai at 5.8 yuan apiece, raising 13.34 billion
yuan ($1.7 billion) and sold another 4.89 billion shares
in Hong Kong at HK$5.86 apiece, raising HK$28.66 billion
($3.7 billion), sources said.
The shares are believed to have been oversubscribed several
times as individual investors sought more than 200 times
the number of shares available in the Hong Kong offering
while institutional investors sought over 80 times the
issue size, reports said.
The Shanghai sales attracted orders worth over a trillion
yuan, excluding shares earmarked for corporate investors,
the sources said.
Citic Bank shares were priced at the top end of indicative
ranges of 5 yuan to 5.80 yuan for the Shanghai portion,
and HK$5.06 to HK$5.86 for the Hong Kong part.
The sale values Citic Bank at 2.75 times its estimated
2007 book value, assuming it increases the Hong Kong offering
by another 15 per cent to cover excess demand.
China has the most expensive banking stocks among Asia''s
emerging markets, at about 3.2 times estimated book value,
compared with 1.7 times for peers in India and 1.4 times
in South Korea, according to a Morgan Stanley report.
China
International Capital Corp., Citigroup Inc., Citic Securities
Co., HSBC Holdings Plc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
arranged the offering.
Chinese banks led by Industrial & Commercial Bank
of China Ltd. have raised almost $60 billion selling shares
in the past two years.
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