From Bloomberg News (link)
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Citigroup Inc.’s biggest individual shareholder, bid $2 billion for 2.7 percent of Bank of China Ltd. as the Chinese lender completes the world’s biggest initial share sale for six years, the lead arranger of the bid said.
“Al Azizia is the arranger for this deal. The sole investor involved is Prince Alwaleed,” Ahmed Halawani, chief executive of Al Azizia, said in a telephone interview from Cairo. The decision on whether the Saudi bid is successful will be made within two hours, said Halawani.
Also see “Bank of China raises $9.7bn on strong demand” from the Financial Times (link)
Bank of China has braved slumping global stock markets to price its listing, the world’s largest in six years, near the top end of its price range, raising $9.73bn in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
Strong demand for BoC, one of China’s “big four” lender, bodes well for a group of other Chinese lenders that are in line to raise at least $14bn on overseas markets in the next year.
