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Minsheng bank to be listed in HK within 2009

By Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-06-23 15:38

China Minsheng Banking Corp, the nation's first privately owned lender, won the overwhelming approval vote by its shareholders Monday to revive an initial H-share sale after shelving the plan for four years and is likely to be listed in Hong Kong by the end of the year.

"Minsheng's initial public offering on the H-share market has done with important technical obstacles and the move will be completed by the end of the year if everything goes well," an official from the bank was quoted by the Beijing-based Securities Daily as saying.

Minsheng planned to offer a block of H-shares not exceeding 15 percent of its enlarged share capital, with global bookkeepers' over-allotment option or 'Green Shoe' accounting for no more than 15 percent of the new H-shares, the bank said in a statement.

Related readings:  Minsheng Bank readies for Hong Kong float  Minsheng Bank net profit up 1.6% in Q1  Temasek likely to sell stake in Minsheng  Minsheng Bank may further increase stake in UCBH

The bank's H-shares will be less than 3.32 billion considering its 18.82 billion total shares at the end of last fiscal year as revealed in its 2008 annual report. When global bookkeepers' over-allotment option is included, the total H-shares won't exceed 3.82 billion.

The capital raised will be used to add to the bank's core capital and to increase its capital adequacy ratio to improve its ability to control risk and promote profitability, according to the announcement.

A spokesperson of the bank said currently the core capital adequacy ratio of the bank was 6.6 percent and it will need as much as 20 billion yuan ($2.92 billion) to fill the funding gap in a bid to reach the banking industry's average level of 9 percent. But that doesn't necessarily mean the bank intends to raise that sum of capital via the H-share listing, the spokesperson added.

Earlier market speculation of the bank's intension was to raise as much as $30 billion, with the offer price per share to be more than 8 yuan.

If the stock market doesn't perform well, H-shares of the bank would probably be 10 percent to 12 percent of its enlarged share capital, the newspaper said, citing another source from the bank.

The spokesperson said issuing the H-shares was the best choice for the bank to get the badly-needed financing and create a platform for additional financing from home and abroad in the future.