The Agricultural Bank of China's initial public offering could still be the world's biggest, with its share sale in Hong Kong and Shanghai set to raise more than US$23 billion.
The Agricultural Bank, the last of the mainland's Big Four lenders to list on the stock market, is seeking fresh capital to meet regulatory requirements.
The share offering had originally been expected to hit US$30 billion, surpassing the record US$22 billion set by the Industrial Bank of China in 2006. However, it has since been scaled back because of the volatile environment of the mainland and Hong Kong stock markets and after the global financial community was spooked by the European debt crisis.
Agricultural Bank is eyeing up to US$15 billion from the share sale in Hong Kong, including a 15 per cent overallotment, according to a term sheet sent to investors. The Hong Kong tranche is 53.3 per cent of the total offering.
Including the Shanghai offering and the overallotment, the bank could raise more than US$27 billion,
The bank, the country's third largest with US$1.4 trillion in assets, began pre-marketing the offering yesterday, providing research from underwriters that gave markets previously undisclosed financial information and forecasts.
Its forecast valuation for next year is 1.57 to 1.97 times price to book, according to one of the underwriters, Macquarie, Reuters reported.