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China Merchants Bank plans US$2b IPO
(Agencies)
Updated: 2006-02-27 20:14
China Merchants Bank Co. is planning a US$2 billion (euro1.7 billion) initial
public stock offering in Hong Kong, becoming the first mainland lender to list
on both stock exchanges, a newspaper reported Monday.
The mid-tier Shenzhen-based bank aims to launch its Hong Kong offering in
September the earliest, the South China Morning Post reported.
The bank has mandated Swiss investment bank UBS AG and China International
Capital Corp., the mainland's largest investment bank, in addition to Merrill
Lynch & Co., to be lead bookrunners for the listing, Dow Jones Newswire
quoted unidentified sources as saying.
China Merchant Bank, which is already listed on Shanghai's stock exchange,
awarded Merrill Lynch the mandate in January, and added UBS and CICC in the last
few days, according to Dow Jones, which put the size of the listing at HK$10
billion (US$1.3 billion; euro1.1 billion) and said it is planned for June.
A person close to the deal told The Associated Press that UBS was made a
bookrunner for the bank's IPO but declined to give other details.
A China International Capital Corp. spokeswoman in Beijing, Tracy Hu,
declined to confirm the report.
Dow Jones reported that the China Merchant deal adds another major coup for
UBS, which along with Goldman Sachs Group is also taking Bank of China, China's
second largest lender, public in a US$6 billion (euro5.0 billion) IPO later this
year.
The battle to grab a underwriting role in upcoming Chinese bank IPOs is
getting increasingly fierce among international investment banks.
Deals slated for this year include state-owned banks Bank of China and
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, as well as mid-tier lender China
Minsheng Banking Corp.
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