Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd., the country's second largest life insurer, has announced that shares of its initial public offering (IPO) was priced at 33.8 yuan.

Ping An IPO attracted subscriptions worth 1.1 trillion yuan (about 145 billion U.S. dollars), according to an announcement by Ping An on Tuesday.

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.

Ping An's IPO subscriptions were only second to that of the Industrial Bank, which was valued at 1.16 trillion yuan, in the history of A-share market. Its IPO also becomes the globe's largest of an insurance company.

The insurer 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 Ping An IPO shares could trade at more than 50 yuan a share when it debuts on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on March 1.

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.

Despite Ping an IPO, Chinese shares have done well.

The benchmark Composite Index on the Shanghai Stock Exchange closed 2,831.27 points on Tuesday, up 24.10 points from the previous close.

The Component Index on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange closed at 8,104.27 points on Tuesday, up 152.69 points from the previous close.

Chinese shares opened slightly higher on Wednesday as the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index opened at 2,836.82 points, up by 4.95 points, or 0.17 percent higher.

Source: Xinhua