The initial public offering (IPO) of Ping An Insurance was oversubscribed by three times as it attracted subscriptions worth 1.1 trillion yuan, (about 145 billion U.S. dollars), on Monday.

On the IPO of the Industrial Bank attracted more subscription funds.

The total value of investors subscribing to the IPO was nearly 32 percent higher than that of China Life, the country's first insurer to start trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange .

Subscriptions by strategic investors and fund managers started on Friday while individual investors began to apply for the right to buy shares through subscriptions on Monday.

With its IPO priced between 31.8 yuan and 33.8 yuan, Ping An is expected to raise 38.87 billion yuan through the offering of 1.15 billion yuan-denominated A shares in Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The Shanghai offering will account for 15.66 percent of the insurer's7.345 billion shares, according to Ping An.

Ping An earmarked 345 million shares, or 30 percent of total shares on offer, to strategic investors. It initially set aside 287.5 million shares for fund managers and 517.5 million shares for individual investors.

Industrial analysts predicted that the Ping An IPO shares could trade at more than 50 yuan a share when it debuts on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on March 1st.

Ping An had 16.1 percent of the country's life insurance market in 2005 and posted 5.32 billion yuan (684 million U.S. dollars) in net profits in the first three quarters of last year, up 25.77 percent from the same period a year earlier.

London-based HSBC Holdings PLC holds a 19.9 percent stake in the insurer, which is already listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Source: Xinhua