Bank of Qingdao IPO said to seek up to $666 million

Bank of Qingdao Co, the Chinese lender backed by Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and an existing investor, is seeking as much as $666 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The lender, based in eastern China's Shandong province, is offering 990 million shares at HK$4.75 ($0.61) to HK$5.21 apiece, the people said on Thursday, asking not to be identified as the information is private.

New shares account for 90.9 percent of the sale, according to the sources.

The deal will add to the $27.8 billion raised from Hong Kong IPOs this year, the highest 11-month tally since 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Bank of Qingdao plans to start taking orders for the offering on Friday and begin trading on Dec 3, the sources said.

Six cornerstone investors have agreed to buy shares accounting for more than 60 percent of the offering. An investment vehicle backed by LendingClub Corp co-founder Soul Htite has committed to buy 200 million shares in the IPO, according to a prospectus posted to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday.

Beth Haiken, a spokeswoman for LendingClub, said neither LendingClub nor any unit or affiliate is involved with the IPO. A Hong Kong-based external spokesman for Bank of Qingdao declined to comment.

Intesa Sanpaolo held a 20 percent stake in the company before the share sale, according to a pre-listing filing.