The Bank of Beijing will raise up to 15 billion yuan (US$2.69 billion) in its initial public offering in Shanghai, based on the price range posted yesterday.

The price of the 1.2 billion new yuan-backed shares was set at between 11.5 yuan and 12.5 yuan each, the Beijing-based city lender said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The bank will announce the final price on Wednesday.

It intends to open subscriptions to retail investors tomorrow. The Bank of Beijing will sell up to 840 million shares, or 70 percent of the offering, to individual investors. The remaining 360 million shares will be sold to institutional investors, who will be able to subscribe to the shares during a two-day period starting today.

"The offer price is a little bit higher than I expected," said Qiu Zhicheng, a Haitong Securities Co analyst. "The bank is a relatively slow mover compared with rivals like the Bank of Ningbo or Bank of Nanjing. But rapid growth is one of the strengths of small city commercial banks."

Qiu expected the price to be about 10 yuan. He also admitted the shares subscription is almost "zero risk" amid the current excess liquidity in the market. The ample capital may also mean the city lender's share sale will not be affected by China Construction Bank's A-share listing, which is expected as early as this month.

Xiao Zhu, a retail investor, said he planned to subscribe to the Bank of Beijing shares, believing the lender has bright prospects because of its sprawling network in Beijing, site of next year's Olympics.

The bank said earlier this month in its prospectus that it will conduct an H-share IPO in Hong Kong after completing the A-share sale, without giving a timetable or sale scale.

The lender gained approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission for the A-share sale at the end of August. Shares of the bank's listed shareholders, including Tongfang Co and UFSoft Co, surged on the bank's announcement it would go public.

(Shanghai Daily September 10 2007)