BoCom's Shanghai IPO attracts record $188 billion Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:20 AM BST26 Email This Article | Print This Article | RSS SHANGHAI, April 26 (Reuters) - The Shanghai IPO of Bank of Communications (3328.HK: Quote, Profile , Research), China's fifth-largest lender, attracted a record 1.455 trillion yuan ($188 billion) in subscriptions, state media reported on Thursday. Retail investors subscribed about 1.155 trillion yuan to the initial public offer, while institutions put up around 300 billion yuan, the official China Securities Journal quoted sources familiar with the offer as saying. Total subscriptions exceeded the previous all-time high for a domestic Chinese IPO, the 1.400 trillion yuan put up for last week's Shanghai IPO of CITIC Bank. Unsuccessful bidders for shares in CITIC Bank received their money back on Tuesday, but some did not have time to transfer those funds to the retail tranche of BoCom's IPO on Wednesday, money market dealers said. So the ability of the markets to cope with two very large IPOs in quick succession, while stock indexes continued to climb to record highs this week, underlines the huge sums drawn to equity investment by China's share market boom. The amount of subscriptions means BoCom's IPO is expected to be about 58 times subscribed, a high level for a major financial IPO though below the more than 90 times for CITIC Bank's smaller offer. BoCom, in which HSBC Holdings Plc. (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile , Research)(0005.HK: Quote, Profile , Research) holds a 19.9 percent stake, is raising as much as 25.2 billion yuan in China's fourth biggest domestic IPO. It plans to issue as many as 3.19 billion new A shares, or 6.51 percent of its expanded share capital, and list in Shanghai on May 15.