China's second largest insurer Ping An Insurance (Group) will start on-line road show on Friday afternoon immediately after it announced the shares of its initial public offering (IPO) were priced at 31.8-33.8 yuan (about 4.18-4.45 U.S. dollars).

The price range is 1.5 times more than that of the IPO shares of China's first insurance stock, the China Life, and approaches the latter's opening price on its first trading day on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

A company statement said that about 1.15 billion yuan-denominated A shares would be issued in Shanghai, which would account for 15.66 percent of the insurer's expanded stock of 7.345 billion shares.

The price range which falls within the market anticipation will dilute the company's price earning ratio from 60.44-64.25 to 71.67-76.18, said the statement.

Related readings:  Ping An kicks off Shanghai IPO  Ping An doubles its capital  Ping an to issue 1.15 billion A shares

Ping An earmarked 345 million shares, or 30 percent of total shares on offer, to strategic investors. It initially set aside 287.5 million shares for fund managers and 517.5 million shares for individual investors.

Subscription by strategic investors and fund managers started on Friday while individual investors will have to wait till Monday.

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