SHANGHAI - China's Bank of Communications has drawn a record 1.45 trillion yuan (188 billion dollars) in bookings for its initial public offering in Shanghai, a state press said Thursday.

A Bank of Communications branch in Beijing. The bank has drawn a record 188 billion dollars in bookings for its initial public offering in Shanghai. [File]

The Shanghai-based bank is likely to set the offering price at 7.9 yuan per share for the sale next month of 3.19 billion A-shares, the official China Securities Journal said.

That would put the share price at the top end of the previously announced 7.0-7.9 yuan range, and put the Hong Kong-listed lender easily on track to earn more than three billion dollars.

The sizeable IPO is smaller than China CITIC Bank, which has raised 5.4 billion dollars for its share sale in Shanghai and Hong Kong that will begin trading Friday, marking the world's biggest sale this year.

Bank of Communications, in which Britain's HSBC holds a 20 percent stake, will sell up to 957.1 million A-shares to strategic investors and up to 797.58 million will go to the institutional side.

It took in 1.155 trillion yuan in applications from institutional investors and about 300 billion was generated from the retail tranche.

Final pricing is expected to be announced later Thursday, the paper said.