By Doug Young and Kelvin Soh
HONG KONG (Reuters) - ICBC, the world's most valuable lender, may raise up to 45 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) through rights offers, joining Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China in a rush to raise billions of dollars to replenish their coffers after a state-backed lending spree last year.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China <1398.HK> <601398.SS> would raise the money through rights offers to shareholders of its Hong Kong-listed H-shares, as well as its Shanghai-listed A-Shares, a banking source told IFR Asia, a Thomson Reuters publication, on Wednesday.
The bank will propose that its shareholders get the right to buy between 0.3 to 0.5 shares per 10 shares held, the Hong Kong-based, Chinese-language Ming Pao reported.
Officials at ICBC were not immediately available for comment.
Sources told Reuters in May that ICBC had mandated banks to arrange a $7-$10 billion Hong Kong stock offering, but did not provide more detailed plans.
ICBC also plans to issue 25 billion yuan in convertible bonds by September, sources close to that deal told Reuters in May. If the rights issue is fulfilled, the bank would raise about $10.3 billion altogether, lower than the minimum $10.7 billion it had earlier planned to raise.
The ICBC plan would come as Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank)
The pricing was largely in line with expectations, giving AgBank a price to book ratio of 1.68. That compares with ratios of about 2 for ICBC and China Construction Bank <0939.HK> <601939.SS>, China's top two lenders, and a sector mean of about 1.6 for Hong Kong-listed banks.
"AgBank's pricing seems reasonable right now given the current market conditions," said Ivan Li, an analyst at Kim Eng Securities in Hong Kong. "The fundraising is ending soon, and I think concern by some investors is overdone. The biggest problem to me is a lack of confidence, and not anything fundamental."
According to the Ming Pao report, ICBC's rights plans were still preliminary and the bank could look at Bank of China's <3988.HK> <601988.SS> recent rights offer announcement as a reference.
Bank of China, the country's No. 4 lender, said on Friday it plans to raise up to 60 billion yuan through a rights offer in Shanghai and Hong Kong, with shareholders getting the right to buy 1.1 shares per 10 shares held.
Chinese banks are seeking to replenish funds depleted by last year's lending spree and to meet tighter capital adequacy ratios demanded by regulators.
(Additional reporting by Clare Jim and Fiona Lau in Hong Kong and Michael Wei in Beijing; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
