Bank of China A-share Prospectus
June 6th, 2006
Yesterday the CSRC posted a prospectus for the Bank of China on its website.
Yes, BOC just listed in Hong Kong, but this prospectus is for a listing on the mainland’s A-share market—in other words, for shares that are inside China’s Great Wall of currency controls, whereas those in Hong Kong are outside the Great FOREX Wall.
Because of the PRC’s foreign exchange controls, PRC investors (banks, insurance companies, mutual funds, their national social security trust fund and of course individual retail investors), cannot freely buy shares in the BOC, even after its Hong Kong IPO. An A-share listing would fix this. It would also give BOC even more capital. No doubt it would also please a number of PRC bankers, lawyers, accountants and officials at the Shanghai Stock Exchange (where BOC will presumably list its A-shares).
BOC disclosed that it planned an A share issuance in its Hong Kong IPO materials. PRC press reports (like this Xinhua story in English) indicate the A-share listing could come quite soon.
BOC’s draft A-share prospectus is nearly 300 pages long. I’ve put the Chinese PDF file here. The CSRC copy is, for now, here.
The English prospectus for BOC’s Hong Kong IPO is here. The interesting Risk Factors section is here.