Recruiting in China

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China attracted a great number of retail investors and is expected to raise up to $22 billion, the most ever raised in a stock debut anywhere.

HONG KONG - (AP) -- China's biggest lender, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, attracted the largest amount of orders ever from Hong Kong retail investors for the bank's initial public offering, news reports said Friday.

The bank's dual IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai is expected to raise up to $22 billion, the most ever raised in a single share debut anywhere.

The retail portion of the offering drew orders of more than HK$420 billion ($53.9 billion) in Hong Kong, The Standard newspaper and the Hong Kong Economic Journal said.

More than 1 million people -- or one in seven of Hong Kong's total population -- placed those orders, the Journal said.

The keen demand surpassed the record set by Bank of China, the mainland's No. 2 lender, whose IPO in June drew HK$280 billion in retail orders.

The Hong Kong portion of the IPO is being priced Friday, while the price of the mainland portion will be set Monday. The shares are due to begin trading simultaneously in Hong Kong and Shanghai Oct. 27.

Given the strong interest, the state-owned bank is expected to price its shares at the top end of the range specified in its prospectus. The price range for the Hong Kong portion has been set at HK$2.56-HK$3.07 ($0.33-$0.39), on par with its Shanghai offering, at 2.60 yuan to 3.12 yuan ($0.33-$0.39).

The IPO has also attracted well over $300 billion in orders from institutional investors, the South China Morning Post reported quoting unidentified market sources.

ICBC plans to sell 35.39 billion ''H'' shares in Hong Kong -- stocks for a mainland Chinese-registered company listed in Hong Kong -- and 13 billion ''A'' shares in Shanghai.

If priced at the top of the range, the dual IPO will raise about $21.9 billion -- exceeding the 1998 IPO by Japanese mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo, which raised $18.4 billion.

Mainland Chinese banks have a long track record of bad debts and lending scandals, but investors have been keen to buy shares, betting that government support will limit risks while allowing them to tap into China's economic boom.

Like the two other major state banks that have already sold shares in Hong Kong, Bank of China and China Construction Bank, ICBC has restructured and wiped out billions of dollars in bad debts.