Two China's city banks open high at mainland debut

Two China's city banks open high at mainland debut
2007-7-19

TWO China's city commercial banks jumped on their debut on the Chinese mainland today.

THE Bank of Nanjing opened at 19.20 yuan (US$2.54) per share in Shanghai, growing 74.5 percent from its initial public offering price of 11 yuan.

The Bank of Ningbo opened at 20.38 yuan per share in Shenzhen, surging 122 percent from its IPO of 9.20 yuan.

The two banks are China's first two city commercial banks to go public.

Both set their share prices at the top end of the range as a result of oversubscription.

The Nanjing bank raised 6.93 billion yuan in the share sale, while the Ningbo lender collected 4.14 billion yuan.

The Bank of Nanjing, partly owned by BNP Paribas and based in the capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, will sell 630 million yuan-backed A shares in Shanghai.

The Bank of Ningbo, which has OCBC Bank as one of its shareholders and is based in Zhejiang Province, is set to sell 450 million shares, or 18 percent of its total capitalization.