China Construction Bank (CCB) yesterday filed a preliminary application with the Hong Kong stock exchange for what is likely to be the second-biggest international public offering by a mainland company in history, market sources said yesterday.
The Beijing-based lender, the mainland's third-largest commercial bank by assets, is understood to be selling 15 per cent of its shares to raise about US$5 billion before listing on the Hong Kong exchange later this year.
Among mainland firms' international share sales, only the US$5.25 billion offering by telecommunications carrier China Unicom in 2000 raised more money, according to Reuters.
Moreover, CCB's share sale would be the first public offering by one of the Big Four state banks, which together control almost 54 per cent of the country's 32.88 trillion yuan in banking assets.
It would mark a triumph for those who have argued for subjecting the inefficient and scandal-hit behemoths to market discipline.
Concerns about the banks' rush to complete stock-market listings as prestige projects while ignoring the more fundamental task of a genuine corporate governance and operational overhaul were heightened by a string of industry scandals earlier this year. Among those was the resignation of then CCB chairman Zhang Enzhao in March amid corruption investigations.