INDUSTRIAL and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China’s biggest bank, has ended speculation about its ambitions by confirming its intention to sell a 17 per cent stake in itself.

ICBC is to begin its pre-marketing in Hong Kong this week after winning approval last week from the city’s exchange. Valued at up to $21 billion (£11 billion), it is set to be the world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) to date.

ICBC said that three quarters of the shares would be sold in Hong Kong, and the rest in Shanghai. The small allocation may disappoint Chinese investors hoping for a bigger slice of the first simultaneous listing on the two markets, but China’s regulators want to limit pressure on Shanghai’s market as they encourage some of the nation’s top companies to list on it.

Rapid economic growth and the development of China’s financial service markets have fuelled ICBC’s strong growth, bringing widespread international interest in the share sale. ICBC forecasts net profits of at least 47.2 billion yuan (£3.13 billion) this year, up from 37.41 billion yuan last year.

Shang Fulin, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at the weekend that IPOs by China’s big banks were driven more by plans to become global players than by a need to raise funds. Four Chinese lenders — Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank, Bank of China and China Merchants Bank — have raised a total of $25 billion in Hong Kong since June 2005.

China’s Government set up ICBC in 1984 to offer deposit and lending services to state-owned manufacturers. It now has 21,000 branches, 360,000 staff and 150 million customers.

Kuwait will be among ICBC’s top investors as the oil-rich state seeks closer ties to the world’s fastest-growing major economy. It will buy shares worth $720 million and will be the largest single subscriber.

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