By Song Hongmei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-09-14 16:07

Hong Kong-listed China Construction Bank (CCB) will net up to 58.05 billion yuan (US$7.73 billion) selling yuan-backed A-shares in Shanghai, Friday's China Business News reported.

CCB, which plans to sell up to nine billion A shares, is offering shares at a price ranging between 6.15 yuan and 6.45 yuan per share, the nation's second-largest bank said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday.

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If the shares sell near the high end of the price range, the IPO would be the largest on the domestic market to date. The high end of the range represents a 6.36 percent discount from yesterday's closing price of the bank's Hong Kong-listed shares.

Final pricing will be set on September 19, with A shares to begin trading on the Shanghai bourse on September 25.

"The price range has been set reasonably, which will be attractive to investors," the newspaper quoted a fund manager as saying.

Up to 3.15 billion A-shares, or 35 percent, will be sold to institutional investors, and the remainder will be sold to retail investors, according to the statement.

The price range translates to a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of between 31.38 and 32.91 times the bank's diluted earnings for 2006, said the statement. At September 13, the P/E ratio of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was 44.28 and that of Bank of China was 36.06.

China International Capital Company, CITIC Securities and Cinda Assets Management Company are the underwriters of the share sale.

CCB is selling shares to bolster its finances, allowing it to extend more loans and fuel the nation's economic expansion, according to its prospectus.

Established in 1954 to finance building roads, bridges, dams and other infrastructure, CCB has grown to be the country's largest mortgage and real estate lender. It provides 22 percent of the nation's mortgages and about 13 percent of overall loans, Bloomberg reported.

The lender's profit rose 47 percent in the first half of this year from a year earlier on more lucrative lending and increased fee-based services.

As of June 30, the bank's assets totaled 6117.8 billion yuan. Its non-performing loan ratio of 2.95 percent was the lowest of China's four largest State-owned banks.

Bank of America Corp, which paid US$2.5 billion for a 9 percent stake in CCB in 2005, will see its stake diluted to 8.2 percent. Central Huijin Investment Co, China's State-owned investment company, will control 59.1 percent of the bank.

CCB was listed in the Hong Kong stock exchange in October 2005. It issued 26.49 billion shares on Hong Kong stock market and raised US$9.2 billion.