A shareholder of Bank of China, the nation's second-largest bank, was seeking to sell HK$1.42 billion worth of shares after the market closed yesterday, sources said.
The undisclosed shareholder was offering up to 354.5 million H shares at HK$4 each, a 1.72 per cent discount to the stock's closing price of HK$4.07 yesterday, a sale document sent to fund managers said.
The deal was being arranged by investment bank giant Goldman Sachs. The bank could not be reached for comment.
'It could be one of about half a dozen shareholders based on that number of shares,' said one equity capital syndicate banker.
BOC attracted a handful of foreign investors in the state-owned lender before it raised HK$75.4 billion in an initial public offering in Hong Kong in June last year.
Temasek Holdings, a Singapore government investment arm, UBS and a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group bought stakes in BOC worth a total of US$5.1 billion.