The bank, in which Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria has a 4.83 percent stake, did not give a fund-raising target for the offer, but people familiar with the situation have said the bank aimed to raise a total of about US$3 billion.

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The IPO, aimed to supplement the bank's capital, was expected to list on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges at the same time on April 27, CITIC Bank said in a share issue prospectus published in official financial newspapers.

The bank said it had tweaked its IPO size slightly, reducing the H-share issue by 65 million shares to 4.885 billion shares from 4.95 billion H shares noted in its initial prospectus published on March 28.

Its Shanghai issue will be expanded slightly to 2.302 billion shares from 2.3 billion A shares initially announced.

CITIC Bank would also exercise a 15-percent overallotment, or "green shoe," option for H shares in case of oversubscription, it said. In this case, the H-share issue would be expanded to 5.618 billion shares, it said.

The H-share offer would account for 12.76 percent of the bank's expanded share capital without the overallotment and expand to 14.39 percent with the option, it said. Shanghai A shares would account for 6.01 percent or 5.9 percent.

"Prices of H shares and A shares will be the same after adjusting the exchange rate difference between the Hong Kong dollar and the yuan " it said.

The bank, 80 percent-owned by Beijing-controlled financial conglomerate China International Trust and Investment, is only the second Chinese company to seek a simultaneous listing in the two markets, following Industrial & Commercial Bank of China last year.

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