Today ICBC became one of the largest banks in the world by market value with a total capitalisation of US$130 billion.

ICBC was simultaneously listed on both the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange. It was the world's largest IPO to date, surpassing the previous record US$18.4 billion IPO by Japan's NTT DoCoMo in 1998. China’s largest commercial bank is also the first company to debut simultaneously on both the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges.

In the runup to its planned initial public offering, on 28th April 2006, three "strategic investors" injected $3.7 billion into ICBC :

Goldman Sachs purchased a 5.8% stake for $2.6 billion, the largest sum Goldman Sachs has ever invested.
Dresdner Bank (a wholly owned subsidiary of Allianz) invested $1 billion.
American Express invested $200 million

ICBC raised at least US$14 billion in Hong Kong (H-shares) and another US$5.1 billion in Shanghai (A-shares). Due to heavy subscriptions, the greenshoe (i.e. over-allotment) placements were exercised and ICBC's take rose to US$21.9 billion (17% of ICBC's market value before the IPO), divided in US$16 billion in Hong Kong and US$5.9 billion in Shanghai. Following the global offering, the free float of shares was 22.14% of the market capitalization.

At the end of its first day of trading, the bank’s shares closed up almost 15% at HK$3.52 in Hong Kong, compared with the listing price of HK$3.07, which was set at the top of the indicative range due to the strong demand. According to Bloomberg, ICBC’s market capitalisation at the end of trade based on its Hong Kong shares was US$156.3 billion, making it the world’s fifth largest bank just behind JPMorgan Chase. Meanwhile, ICBC’s Shanghai-listed A-shares recorded more modest gains and ended up 5.1% from the offering price of RMB 3.12.

It seems to be a great investment. I still think it is undervalued.
I got in early.
Highly recommended for the long term.

Rob

I get email like this all the time. Inevitably, it resembles a cut-and-paste press release. I forward it not only to my ISP, but to <enforcement@sec.gov> as well.

ITJock, has your account been hijacked?

kakistocracy malignant narcissism osama inmarsat 873682505331

Believe it or not, there is more to life than just sports... Ok, not a whole lot, but a little bit more.

Rob