ICBC retail investors may miss out

Some Hong Kong retail investors will miss out on a slice of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's record-breaking US$19.1 billion initial public offering, even after a clawback mechanism doubled the retail part of the H-share offering to 10%, the South China Morning Post reported. ICBC sold 35.49 billion H-shares, or 10.8% of its enlarged share capital, at US$0.39 each, the top end of its indicative price range, and is likely to sell an additional 5.31 billion H-shares. The overallotment option was exercised on Monday in the mainland, where ICBC sold an additional 1.95 billion A-shares after the domestic retail tranche was 49 times oversubscribed, the first move of its kind for a mainland domestic share sale. About 53% of the A shares went to 23 corporate and financial investors, 24% went to retail investors and the remainder were sold to domestic institutional investors. ICBC shares will begin trading on Friday.