Guangdong Development Bank, which is partly owned by Citigroup, may be close to mandating bookrunners for a 30 billion yuan (HK$35 billion) initial public offering.
The medium-sized Guangzhou-based lender said in March it was preparing for an offer, joining about a dozen city commercial banks and rural lenders planning a listing next year either in Shanghai or Hong Kong.
'Several banks have pitched for this 30 billion yuan deal,' reported International Financing Review, a Thomson Reuters publication, without naming its source.
China International Capital Corp, the mainland's top investment bank, is said to be mandated for the deal, said IFR. Development Bank was not available for comment yesterday.
Established in 1988, the lender was among the first joint-stock commercial banks in the nation.
However, despite its size - controlling 666.5 billion yuan of assets with 28 branches across the nation at the end of last year - Development Bank lagged behind 16 state and regional lenders in securing a stock market listing.