Agricultural Bank of China announces full exercise of over-allotment option

China's Agricultural Bank (ABC) announced Thursday the over-allotment option for its global offering has been exercised in full by the joint bookrunners on behalf of the international underwriters on the day.

The move will bring about 11.96 billion HK dollars (about 1.54 billion U.S. dollars) for the company, according to a statement released by ABC via the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The statement says the bank will issue a total of 3,811,764,000 H shares, represents approximately 15 percent of the Offer Shares initially available under its global offering, at 3.2 HK dollars per share.

Meanwhile, the state-owned shareholders of the company are required to transfer to the Social Security Fund (SSF), in proportion to their respective shareholdings in the company, in aggregate equivalent to 10 percent of the number of the H shares issued under the over-allotment option, or pay the equivalent cash at the offer price to the SSF.

The A shares transferred to the SSF from the state-owned shareholders will be converted into H shares on a one-to-one basis.

The bank has already got approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to list and trade the over-allotment shares on Aug. 5, 2010.

Source: Xinhua