China On Pace For Record IPO, Again

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The Agricultural Bank of China's initial public offering could be on its way to becoming the largest IPO ever, surpassing a record set by a peer Chinese bank in 2006.

AgBank will raise $19.3 billion -- before an overallotment of shares -- according to anonymously sourced reports from Hong Kong and mainland China that began filtering through the financial press on Tuesday.

In 2006, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China raised $21.9 billion, but it is now expected to fall to second place on the list of all-time IPO fund raisings, if AgBank's share overallotment nudges its IPO over the $22 billion mark.

AgBank is dual listing its IPO in Hong Kong and mainland China. According to anonymous sources quoted by Bloomberg and Reuters, the Hong Kong-listed AgBank shares have priced at HK3.20, and the yuan-denominated shares have priced at 2.68 yuan, or approximately 40 to 41 cents.

The pricing information indicates that AgBank will raise a total of $19.3 billion, with the overallotment raising the IPO proceeds to $22.2 billion.

Many major Wall Street banks are involved in the Hong Kong listing of AgBank shares, including Deutsche Bank(DB), Goldman Sachs(GS), JPMorgan(JPM) and Morgan Stanley(MS).

Standard Chartered, the lead underwriter of the AgBank deal among Western banks, is investing $500 million in the IPO.

Sovereign wealth giants buying into AgBank shares include the Qatar Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority.