Individual investors have reacted enthusiastically to China Merchants Bank (CMB) initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, oversubscribing its shares 265 times, the Xinhua-run China Securities Journal said Thursday.

When applications closed Wednesday evening, a total of 250 billion HK dollars were frozen in escrow accounts, the report said. Individual applications began last Friday.

Institutional investors oversubscribed CMB's shares 34 times, locking up a further 80 billion U.S. dollars. Applications by institutional investors will close on Thursday.

China Merchants Bank, the country's sixth largest lender, hopes to raise up to 2.4 billion US dollars from its Hong Kong listing.

The bank is offering 2.2 billion shares in its IPO, 95 percent of which are reserved for institutional investors and the rest for individual stock buyers.

Its shares have been priced in the 7.30-8.55 HK dollars range. The final price will be decided at the end of the subscription.

CMB has shares traded on the Shanghai stock exchange since 2002.

As of June 2006, the bank's assets were valued at 824.3 billion yuan (103.43 billion U.S. dollars). Its outstanding loans stood at 531.6 billion yuan (66.70 billion dollars) and deposits at 703.6 billion yuan (88.28 billion dollars).

Trading in CMB shares on the Hong Kong bourse is set to begin on September 22.

CMB is the fourth mainland bank to list in Hong Kong, following the Bank of Communications, the China Construction Bank and the Bank of China.

Source: Xinhua