(26 April 2006 – China) Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing has told Bank of China to increase the size of its initial public offering to 20 percent of its share capital.The bank’s intention had been to float 16 percent of its share price with Temasek, UBS and China’s National Social Security Fund taking a 10 percent block stake.
This meant less than half the number of shares would be available to sell to retail and institutional investors.
As a result, the Hong Kong regulator said BOC had to increase the number of shares on offer.
The IPO is tipped to raise US$7 billion.