Jan. 5, 2007 (China Knowledge) – Industrial Bank is set to become the first company in the Mainland to win regulatory approval for an A-share listing this year, as the CSRC will start to review the IPO application during its first working meeting on Monday.

The Fujian-based Industrial Bank planned to issue up to 1.3 billion shares, or between 20% and 25% of its enlarged share capital, according to its preliminary listing document posted on the CSRC website.

The document did not specify how much the bank plans to raise, although it has been reported that the deal will be worth more than RMB 10 billion. Part of the IPO proceeds will be used to boost its capital adequacy ratio, which was 8.41% in September last year. Industrial Bank is also considering using part of the proceeds to open more branches, improve its information system and acquire fixed assets.

BOC International (China) is the sole listing sponsor.

Industrial Bank had assets of RMB 532 billion in June last year. Profits for the first six months of 2006 was RMB 1.7 billion, more than half of the RMB 2.5 billion for the fiscal 2005. Revenue in 2005 rose 43% to RMB 9.3 billion due to higher investment returns.

Its biggest shareholder is the Fujian provincial government, which owns 25.5%. The Hang Seng Bank owns 16%, the Singapore government 5% and the World Bank's International Finance Corp. 4%.