2010-07-01 17:25

BEIJING - The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) started accepting institutional investors' subscriptions to its A-share initial public offering (IPO) Thursday.

Institutional investors' subscriptions will be accepted until July 6, the bank said in a statement posted on its website.

ABC will issue 22.24 billion A shares in the IPO. In the case that over-allotment, or greenshoe, options may be fully exercised and the number of A shares issued will be 25.57 billion shares.

Institutional investors will not be allowed to subscribe again on July 6 when ABC starts taking subscriptions from individual investors.

ABC said late Monday in a statement filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange it has set the price range for the Shanghai portion of its IPO at 2.52 to 2.68 yuan per share.

The bank said Wednesday it plans to set the price range for its H-share IPO at HK$2.88 to HK$3.48 (2.5 yuan to 3.02 yuan) per share. The price will be set on July 7.

The pricing of the shares means ABC, the last of China's "big four" State-owned banks to float its shares, will raise up to $23.2 billion.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission earlier this month approved ABC's IPO application for a dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The listing is scheduled for mid-July.