Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the largest lender of mainland, will launch its initial public offer and become the first one offering the listing of A, H shares simultaneously with its approved application for listing by financial regulators of mainland and Hong Kong.

According to the lender's offering book issued in the website of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), ICBC plans to provide 13 billion A shares (excluding the oversubscription) and 35.39 billion H shares (except for oversubscription), amounting to 48.39 billion shares; if calculating the oversubcription of 15% at most, the number will reach to 55.65 billion at most.

The lender didn't unveiled the range of this offering and the date for listing.

Among the H shares of 35.39, 95% are for international investors, about 33.62 billion shares; the rest 5% for public subscription, about 1.77 billion shares. Sources in sector estimated ICBC will raise total $18 billion to $21 billion, exceeding the Japan NTT Mobile Telecom's $18.4 in 1998 and become the largest IPO in the world.

Accoring to the international accounting rule, ICBC gained net profit of 37.555 billion yuan and 25,143 billion yuan respectively last year and half of this year, expecting its net profit this year are not less than 47.2 billion yuan or a growth rate more than 26%.

China