Beijing-based bank ICBC would sell 53.1 billion shares, or 16 percent of its enlarged share capital.

The IPO would be the world's largest, ahead of NTT DoCoMo's US$18.4 billion share sale in 1998.

The Chinese bank will sell 35.4 billion H-shares in Hong Kong. Five percent of the H-shares will be earmarked for retail investors, while the remainder will be sold to international institutions, with a 15 percent over-allotment option that could boost the number of H-shares to 40.7 billion.

The bank also plans to sell 17.7 billion yuan-denominated A-shares to investors in the mainland, the paper added. It gave no further listing details or time schedule of the IPO.

The country's top life insurer expected to invest in more banks, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Source:佚名