Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest lender by market value, said last night it planned to raise up to Rmb45bn ($6.64bn) in a rights issue in Hong Kong and Shanghai to shore up its capital base.
The rights issue is the latest in a string of fundraising plans from China's state-controlled banks, which intend to raise tens of billions of dollars in the coming months to strengthen their balance sheets in the wake of an unprecedented lending spree last year.
ICBC's plan comes less than two weeks after Agricultural Bank of China raised as much as $22.1bn in an initial public offering that could be the world's largest ever if an over-allotment quota is fully exercised.