Bank of China said on Thursday it is priced at 3.08 yuan (38.5 U.S. cents) per share for an imminent trading in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, raising a cumulative 20 billion yuan in the Chinese inland's biggest-ever share offering.

 

The price falls within an indicative range of 3.05 to 3.15 yuan announced by the bank earlier this week, and tracks its 2.95 Hong Kong dollars pricing for shares that were already offered in Hong Kong in late May.

 

More than 6.49 billion yuan-denominated shares, or A-shares, will be issued, the bank said in a statement.

 

Bank of China shares were open to institutional subscription Monday and Tuesday.

 

Fund companies, stock brokerages, insurers, pension funds and other big investors went all out for a portion of the bank's shares, only successfully obtaining 6.56 billion yuan worth of shares with more than 120 billion yuan of funds frozen, reflecting a hotly awaited demand for the giant state lender.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2006)