Bank of China Listing 15 Times Oversubscribed

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, July 19, 2002

Bank of China Listing 15 Times Oversubscribed

Confidence in the Bank of China Hong Kong has led to 15-time oversubscription of its shares in itsinitial public offering (IPO), the South China Morning Post reported Friday.

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Confidence in the Bank of China Hong Kong has led to 15-time oversubscription of its shares in itsinitial public offering (IPO), the South China Morning Post reported Friday.

By the time applications for retail shares closed Thursday noon,local retail investors had applied for an estimated 32.7 billion Hong Kong dollars (4.19 billion US dollars) worth of shares, the paper said.

The investors have been estimated to have applied to 3.45 billion shares -- about 15 times the 229.8 million shares available in the public offering in Hong Kong.

It is the strongest response to an IPO on the Hong Kong stock market this year, the paper noted, adding that the listing of the bank's Hong Kong (Holdings) will be a landmark in the reform of China's banking sector, as state-owned banks continue to improve their operating efficiency, corporate governance and transparency.

Ratings agency Standard and Poor's has also commented on the IPO that "the Bank of China enjoys a strong market position in Hong Kong, good liquidity and satisfactory capitalization."

A 15-time subscription level is seen as the key level of interest because it would automatically trigger a "claw back" of shares from those allotted to institutional investors to the retail tranche, it said.

The FTSE/Xinhua Index said it would add Bank of China Hong Kongto its FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index next Saturday, a day after the bank's scheduled listing.

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