ICBC to price IPO at top end

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which is set to raise a record US$22 billion in a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, is expected to price its shares tomorrow at the high end of its indicative range, given strong demand from institutional and retail investors, the South China Morning Post reported. Demand for the retail tranche was so strong that most leading local brokerages were forced to cut off margin lending after the first day. Nine brokers, including KGI Asia, Phillip Securities, China Everbright Securities and Celestial Asia Securities, lent more than US$6.42 billion to would-be ICBC investors, depleting the capital they had on reserve for margin lending. "We've used up our funds on the first day," Stephen Tse, head of corporate finance at Phillip Securities, told the newspaper. "The market expects ICBC to tie up more than US$38.5 billion" of retail investors' money, he said. ICBC also received orders worth about US$215 billion from institutional investors by Wednesday afternoon, or 23 times the amount of shares initially set aside for the institutional tranche. ICBC will sell 35.39 billion H shares, with an option to sell an additional 5.31 billion shares, and 13 billion A shares, with an option to sell an additional 1.95 billion shares, at the local currency equivalents of US$0.33-0.39 per share.