SHANGHAI -- China CITIC Bank, the country's seventh-biggest commercial bank, said it would launch its simultaneous initial public offering of shares in Shanghai and Hong Kong on Wednesday.

A work moves a signboard at a 24-hour self-service branch of the China CITIC Bank in Beijing April 4, 2007. China CITIC Bank Corp. Ltd., the country's seventh-biggest commercial bank, began marketing a $3 billion IPO in Shanghai and Hong Kong on Wednesday that is expected to command strong demand from investors seeking access to double-digit growth in the world's fourth-largest economy. [Reuters]

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.

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.

Investors who regard Chinese banks as proxy investments to tap into the country's recent 10 percent annual economic growth have flooded into Chinese bank listings since lenders began selling shares in Hong Kong in 2005.

Last year's US$21.9 billion Hong Kong and Shanghai IPO by ICBC was the world's largest.

CITIC Bank said it had appointed China International Capital the lead underwriter for the IPO and CITIC Securities the offer's financial adviser.

For its Shanghai issue, the bank planned to place A shares worth around 3 billion yuan ($388 million) to strategic investors and place 6.9 billion shares, or no more than one third of the Shanghai issue, to ordinary institutional investors. The remaining shares would be sold to retail investors, it said.

Book building would kick off on Wednesday and end on April 11. Institutional subscription would last from April 16 to 19 and retail subscription would be conducted on April 19, it said.

Institutional money frozen in the subscription would be freed on April 23 and retail money would be unfrozen on April 24.

CITIC Bank said its net profit rose 25 percent to 3.86 billion yuan in 2006 from 3.08 billion yuan the previous year under international accounting standards. Outstanding loans rose 27 percent on the year to 453.38 billion yuan at the end of 2006.

Its capital-adequacy ratio stood at 9.41 percent at end-2006, up from 8.11 percent a year ago. The non-performing loan ratio fell to 2.45 percent from 4.14 percent.