BOC IPO now fourth largest ever

The size of Bank of China's Hong Kong initial public offering jumped 15% to US$11.2 billion, making it the fourth largest on record. The bank used its option to sell an additional 3.84 billion shares at the original IPO price of US$.38 (HK$2.95). The rally raised the bank's value to US$112 billion, past Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which is one of its biggest shareholders and the second largest bank in the UK. The extra shares gave the BOC IPO the boost it needed to get past the largest offering in the US, the US$10 billion 2000 IPO by AT&T Wireless Group. Japan's NTT DoCoMo raised US$18.4 billion in 1998, Italy's Enel SpA sold US$17 billion the next year and Deutsche Telekom AG sold US$13 billion in 1996, Bloomberg reported.