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Chinese bank IPO draws record 2.26 trillion yuan

China Construction Bank Corp's (中國建設銀行) initial public offering (IPO) for shares to be traded in Shanghai drew a record 2.26 trillion yuan (US$300 billion) in subscriptions, almost 40 times the amount the bank is trying to raise, reports said yesterday.

The IPO by China's biggest property lender is expected to raise up to 58 billion yuan, likely setting a record for a share listing on a domestic bourse.

Demand for the 9 billion shares the bank is offering at 6.15 yuan to 6.45 yuan was strong amid abundant funds and positive earnings expectations for the bank, said the China Securities Journal and other reports.

The previous record for subscriptions for a domestic IPO was the 1.89 trillion yuan in interest drawn by the mid-sized city lender Bank of Beijing (北京銀行). That was 125 times more than the 15 billion yuan it raised in its Shanghai IPO earlier this month.

Massive demand for shares, especially from retail investors, has helped push Shanghai's benchmark Composite Index up by more than 100 percent since the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, China's securities regulator has approved a plan by China Shenhua Energy Co (神華能源), the country's biggest coal producer by output, to list shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission approved the proposed share listing in a meeting on Monday, according to a notice seen yesterday on its Web site.

Shenhua owns coal mines, railways, ports and power plants. It already has shares traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The stock will be off-limits to most foreign investors as yuan-denominated "A shares." Shenhua has not said how much it expects to raise in the initial offering of the shares.

Also yesterday, the Chinese government said PetroChina Co (中國石油天然氣), the nation's largest oil company, plans to use proceeds from an upcoming domestic share sale on a huge refinery project in the country's resource-rich northwest.

This is one of six projects to receive funds raised in the massive Shanghai IPO, said the State Environmental Protection Administration, which must assess the ecological impact.

The refinery in Dushanzi in the Xinjiang region will be the country's largest refinery and petrochemical complex after expansion financed by the IPO, the administration said in a statement on its Web site.
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