Investors flock to US$8 billion float

China Construction Bank has sold US$8 billion ($11.5 billion) of stock, the world's biggest initial public offering in the past four years.

The bank, China's third largest, sold 12 per cent of its total shares at HK$2.35 (43.5c) each, bankers familiar with the sale said. That was close to the top of its funding target as the offering attracted at least US$76 billion worth of orders.

The sale tested investor confidence in the overhaul of China's three largest state-owned banks after a US$60 billion Government bailout to prepare them for IPOs.

Beijing-based Construction Bank, which has the lowest bad-loan ratio of the three, drew investment from Bank of America and Singapore's Temasek Holdings before the sale.

"China will not want to see Construction Bank fail in its IPO because there will be more state-owned banks coming," said Koh Choy, a fund manager at Golden Honour Asset Management in Hong Kong.

"I expect the price to gain as much as 8 per cent in the first few days of trading," he said.

The sale values Construction Bank at US$66 billion, about the same as BNP Paribas, France's second-biggest bank, and larger than American Express.

Citigroup, which has almost three times as many assets as the Chinese bank, is valued at US$227 billion.

Economists expect China's economy, which has averaged 9.5 per cent growth annually since free-market reforms began in 1978, to expand 8.8 per cent in the fourth quarter and 9.1 per cent for the full year, according to a Bloomberg survey.

That is more than double the 4.3 per cent pace of expansion the International Monetary Fund is forecasting for the global economy this year.

China's banks had 18.6 trillion yuan of loans outstanding as of June 30, up 8.5 per cent from the end of last year, according to central bank data.

Construction Bank's IPO was the largest since Kraft Foods went public in June 2001. The shares will start trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on October 27.

The sale had drawn at least US$76 billion of demand from Hong Kong residents and global investors, people involved in the sale said.

Bank of Communications, which in June became the first state-owned China lender to list overseas, received about US$47 billion of demand, 25 times the amount it sought. It raised HK$14.6 billion in that sale.

Larger rivals Bank of China and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China are also preparing to go public.

- BLOOMBERG