Biz Scene: GRAPEVINE

IPO plans

Four Chinese rural commercial banks are planning initial public offerings, Securities Times reported, citing unidentified sources.

Preparations for public share sales are under way at the rural commercial banks of Zhangjiagang, Wujiang, Jiangyin and Changshu, the newspaper cited these people as saying.

Dongwu Securities Co, Huatai Securities Co, Guotai Jun'an Securities Co and CITIC Securities Co are respectively advising these banks, said the newspaper.

Record subscriptions

China Railway Group attracted more than 3.37 trillion yuan in subscriptions to its Shanghai IPO, a record for a mainland stock offer, Reuters yesterday reported, citing an unidentified source.

The figure, which is a preliminary estimate, is slightly higher than the previous record of 3.378 trillion yuan in subscriptions for PetroChina in October, the source said.

China Railway is raising up to $5.5 billion by selling shares publicly in Hong Kong and Shanghai. It plans to list in Shanghai on December 3 and in Hong Kong on December 7.

(China Daily 11/23/2007 page15)