BOC on track for home IPO

China's securities regulator has announced that it will hold a hearing on Bank of China's domestic initial public offering on Friday, putting the bank on track to complete a listing by late June or early July. It is likely to be the first major domestic IPO since domestic stock exchanges were reopened to new listings in May. BOC raised US$9.7 billion in Hong Kong last Thursday in the world's biggest IPO since 2000, though this is expected to be bumped to US$11.2 billion if underwriters exercise options over the next few weeks. In its Hong Kong IPO prospectus, the bank said it intended to pursue a domestic A-share listing "as soon as practicable", but would list no more than 10 billion newly-issued A-shares, worth up to US$2.5 billion.