The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest lender, plans to sell about US$19 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong and Shanghai, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Wednesday.
 
The South China Morning Post cited sources as saying the Beijing-based bank would sell 53.1 billion shares, or 16 percent of its enlarged share capital.

The IPO would be the world's largest, ahead of NTT DoCoMo's US$18.4 billion share sale in 1998.

The Chinese bank will sell 35.4 billion H-shares in Hong Kong. Five percent of the H-shares will be earmarked for retail investors, while the remainder will be sold to international institutions, with a 15 percent over-allotment option that could boost the number of H-shares to 40.7 billion, the paper said.

The bank also plans to sell 17.7 billion yuan-denominated A-shares to investors in the mainland, the paper added. It gave no further listing details or time schedule of the IPO.

Also on Wednesday, state media quoted a senior official of China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. as saying the country's top life insurer expected to invest in more banks, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

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