China CITIC Bank has raised US$5.4 billion through its initial public offering (IPO) for upcoming listings in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

CITIC, which is scheduled to list on April 27, has set its IPO price per share at the upper limit of its indicative price range, with 5.8 yuan on the mainland and 5.86 HK dollars in Hong Kong.

CITIC is reported to be issuing 2.3 billion A-shares in Shanghai, six percent of the total capital, and 5 billion H-shares in Hong Kong, 12.76 percent.

The prices were set in line with strong demand from investors, said an insider with CITIC.

The country's seventh-largest commercial bank previously announced an IPO price range of 5.0-5.8 yuan on the mainland and 5.06-5.86 yuan in Hong Kong.

Its IPO was launched on April 16 and ended on April 19.

CITIC Bank is the second company to simultaneously list on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges after the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Last year, ICBC's IPO raised US$21.9 billion, far exceeding the previous record, an US$18.4-billion IPO by Japanese mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo Inc. in 1998.

With assets of just under US$100 billion, CITIC Bank reported 3.73 billion yuan in net profits in 2006, up from 3.15 billion yuan in 2005. The bank expects its net profits to hit 5.7 billion yuan in 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2007)