Shares in China CITIC Bank soared 58.79 percent above their initial public offering (IPO) price when they debuted on the Shanghai stock market on Friday, opening at 9.21 yuan.

 

It is the second mainland bank to simultaneously list on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges after the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

 

The country's seventh-largest commercial bank is reported to be issuing 2.3 billion A-shares in Shanghai, six percent of the total capital, and five billion H-shares in Hong Kong, 12.76 percent.

 

Total shares of the bank exceed 26 billion, excluding H-shares, and its market capitalization surpassed 200 billion yuan (US$26 billion), said Hu Jia, an analyst with Shanghai-based D-ding Securities.

 

Parent company CITIC Group held 24.9 billion shares in CITIC Bank, or 80 percent of the total before listing in A-share and H-share markets.

 

With assets of just under 100 billion U.S. dollars, CITIC Bank reported 3.73 billion yuan in net profits in 2006, up from 3.15 billion yuan in 2005. The bank expects net profits to hit 5.7 billion yuan in 2007.

 

Founded in 1979, CITIC Group is China's leading state-owned transnational firm, with interests in financial services, information technology, energy, heavy industry and other fields. Its registered capital came in at 30 billion yuan by the end of 2006.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2007)