China Everbright Bank to list in Shanghai before 2008 Olympics

China Everbright Bank (CEB), the first state-owned commercial bank with shares held by international financial institutions, plans to float its shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange before the Beijing Olympic Games this August, and will look for the right time to launch the H-share offering after that, Tang Shuangning, chairman of the Chinese lender, told sources in a recent interview.

The bank's total shares amounted to 28.2 billion after the state-owned Cental Huijin Investment Co injected RMB 20 billion into CEB last December. It is estimated that CEB will issue 3 billion shares in its Shanghai IPO and the total shares to be offered will not exceed 5 billion.

However, Tang did not disclose the amount that CEB is going to raise from the dual listing.

Earlier reports said CEB has assigned three underwriters for its Shanghai IPO, namely China Jianyin Investment Securities, Shenyin & Wangguo Securities Co. Ltd. and Galaxy Securities Company Ltd.