HONG KONG: The mainland's seventh-largest bank, China CITIC Bank, has got the nod from Hong Kong bourse to offer H shares, and is waiting for A-share listing approval, which may come in two weeks, sources said.

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The lender hopes to sell its shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai bourses simultaneously by the end of April, though the A-share hearing is expected to proceed as early as this week.

If approved, it will become the second company allowed to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in Shanghai and Hong Kong at the same time, after the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China last year.

CITIC Bank plans to float 8 billion shares in a bid to collect $2.8 billion to $3 billion. H shares and A shares are split in the proportion of 3 to 2, or 4.8 billion and 3.2 billion shares.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission will finalize the date of hearing soon. "If it gets the approval, a global roadshow will follow and a public offering will possibly be made around Easter," a source said.

The sources also said the lender's major shareholder, CITIC Group, will divest part of its stake, equivalent to 10 percent of the shares issued, to help purchase by Spanish banking group BBVA, CITIC Bank's strategic partner.

CITIC Bank earlier told underwriters that the projected revenue would not be less than 5.7 billion yuan for 2007, a 46 percent increase over the previous year, while the non-performing loan ratio would drop to 2 percent from 2.5 percent.

China International Capital Corp, Citigroup, CITIC Securities, HSBC and Lehman Brothers are the underwriters of the share sale.

CITIC Bank has revised its listing plan. Last November, CITIC Bank President Chen Xiaoxian had said he hoped to launch an IPO in Hong Kong early this year and then move back to the Shanghai bourse.

CITIC Bank last year reported a net profit of 3.9 billion yuan and a total asset value of 700 billion yuan.

CITIC Group earlier introduced BBVA as a strategic partner of CITIC Bank and CITIC International. Spain's second-largest banking group this month announced that it was increasing its stake in CITIC Bank to 10 percent and to 35 percent in CITIC International. The injection involved about 1 billion euros.

(China Daily 03/28/2007 page14)

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