What’s new: Bank of Ruifeng, a rural commercial bank based in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, cleared regulatory reviews for an initial public offering on the domestic A-share market, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
The bank plans to sell as many as 453 million shares to supplement core capital, according to the bank, which didn’t disclose targets for the fundraising. CSC Financial Co. Ltd. serves as the lead underwriter.
In 2019, Bank of Ruifeng reported 2.86 billion yuan ($444 million) of revenue, up 8.3% from a year earlier. Net profit rose 7.7% to 1 billion yuan. The bank had total assets of 119.6 billion yuan with a capital adequacy ratio at 17.8% as of the end of June.
Why it matters: Bank of Ruifeng is set to become the 10th rural bank in China to be listed and the first Zhejiang-based lender to go public. China currently has 39 banks trading on domestic bourses.
Unlike neighboring provinces, Zhejiang, the traditional merchandise hub in southern China, hasn’t had any of its local banks tap the capital market. Analysts said this partly reflected the strong presence of private ownership in the province, making it more complicated for financial institutions to restructure for public listings.
Bank of Ruifeng first unveiled its listing plan in 2018, but the review of its applications was delayed.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).
