Bank of China's A-share offering in the pipeline, report

The Bank of China has submitted an application for an initial public offering, aimed at raising 20 billion yuan, to the nation's securities regulator, a news report said Tuesday.

A China Securities Regulatory Commission committee will examine the BOC IPO plan on June 9, the Xinhua-run Shanghai Securities News reported, citing a prospectus.

BOC is projected to issue a maximum of 10 billion shares, the most of any Chinese company already listed in the renminbi-denominated A-share market. The bank's total assets and net assets also dwarf other public firms.

China also has a smaller B-share market for trading of foreign currency shares.

The paper said the new share offering would help further boost BOC's capital base, after China's No. 2 lender raised 9.7 billion U.S. dollars from its recent initial public offering -- the world's biggest in six years -- in Hong Kong.

The BOC's so-called H-shares have surged more than 20 percent by Monday since their debut last Thursday.

China is overhauling its state-owned, debt-laden banking sector prior to fully opening the financial market to foreign banks by the end of this year under a WTO commitment.

The government has moved to write off the major banks' bad debts, restructure them into shareholding companies, invite strategic foreign investors and allow them to go public.

Source: Xinhua