China Everbright Bank aims to complete its potential $2.9 billion Shanghai initial public offering by Aug. 18, joining larger rivals in tapping the market for funds after a 2009 lending binge dented balance sheets.
Everbright Bank, China's 11th biggest lender by assets, will kickstart investor roadshows in four major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, from July 30 to Aug. 5 and aims to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Aug. 18, it said in a statement late on Thursday.
It will take subscriptions from institutional investors from Aug. 9, the bank said.
Controlled by Central Huijin, the investment arm of China's sovereign wealth fund, Everbright Bank would sell 6.1 billion yuan-denominated A shares in the IPO. The size of the offering may be expanded to 7 billion shares if a greenshoe, or over-allotment option, is exercised.
The Everbright Bank IPO comes less than a month after Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank), the country's third-biggest lender, completed its giant dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
China's stock market fell nearly a third in the first half of the year as a flood of new offerings, including the AgBank IPO, soaked up liquidity.
AgBank raised a near record $20.8 billion in the world's second biggest IPO.
All major state-owned Chinese lenders have announced massive fundraising plans after they lent a record 9.6 trillion yuan last year to support Beijing's economic stimulus and as the banking regulator tightened capital rules to pre-empt a rise in industry bad loans.
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the world's most valuable bank, said on Wednesday it would raise up to 45 billion yuan ($6.64 billion) through a rights offer.
