ABC, the biggest bank in China by customers, plans to sell as many as 22.24 billion A shares in its IPO in Shanghai and another 25.4 billion shares in Hong Kong. The Beijing-based bank didn't disclose its issue price on Friday, but earlier media reports indicated that it could net USD 30 billion to rank as the biggest IPO in the world, surpassing the USD 22 billion sale by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2006, the 'Shanghai Daily' reported on Saturday.
ABC is the last among China's big four state-owned banks to follow the three-step reform -- clean-up of balance sheet, attracting foreign investors and going public. Its rivals, ICBC, the Bank of China and China Construction Bank, are all dual-listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong. ABC's Shanghai shares would account for 7 per cent of its enlarged capital, while its Hong Kong shares would account for 8 per cent.
Also on Friday, Rabobank Group NV, the world's biggest agricultural lender, said it will start a strategic partnership with ABC in wholesale banking, rural finance, asset management and leasing, as well tapping joint business opportunities. Although ABC, with most of its business in the country's rural areas, is less profitable than its state-owned rivals, Chairman Xiang Junbo is confident that investors will eye its 350 million customers as the central government aims to cut the gap between affluent cities and rural areas.
Liao Qiang, a Beijing-based analyst at Standard & Poor's, said ABC's rural operations are not profitable yet, but he has "no doubt" that it will eventually become a stable growth engine that can't be easily matched by competitors. Xiang, previously the deputy governor of China's central bank, still has to persuade investors of ABC's prospects against concerns of a double-dip recession in the global economy amid the Greece debt crisis as well as worries of a domestic stock market slide and a correction in the housing market.
"The timing isn't so good for the Agricultural Bank. Most of my investment colleagues are expecting the bank to give a reasonable price," said an investment manager, who declined to be named, the Daily reported.