From The New York Times:
Share sale documents filed late Friday by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China confirmed the bank’s plan for what could be the world’s largest initial public offering.
Hong Kong’s stock exchange gave permission on Thursday for the bank to proceed with the sale of shares as part of an initial public offering on the Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges that could raise $19 billion, if fully subscribed. That would exceed the current record holder, an $18.4 billion initial public offering by NTT DoCoMo of Japan in 1998.
The bank, China’s biggest, moved ahead with its plans as a strong debut here on Friday for China Merchants Bank showed that investors remain smitten with big Chinese banks despite the banks’ problems. Shares of China Merchants Bank, the country’s sixth-largest, jumped 25 percent on its first day of trading here to close at $1.37 a share, raising $2.4 billion in a heavily oversubscribed initial public offering. [Full Text]
