Postal Savings Bank of China plans to raise up to $25 billion with an initial public offering in 2016, the latest of China's large banks to seek funds via the equity markets, according to a source-based report in the official China Daily newspaper. By the end of June, China's seventh-largest bank intends to introduce strategic investors who will invest $6 billion before the IPO in exchange for 15 percent of the bank's equity, in a bid to improve corporate governance, according to the paper.
The bank, which has the most outlets of any lender in the country, has received approval from the Ministry of Finance, the newspaper quoted a source as saying.
The China Daily did not disclose which bourse the bank was planning to list on.
The bank was unable to immediately comment when contacted.
Postal Savings Bank is wholly-owned by China Post Group Corp, the state-owned postal service.
The bank has close to 40,000 branches across China and its total assets exceeded 5.58 trillion yuan ($891.69 billion) at the end of 2013, according to its website.
Alibaba's IPO in September 2014 was the world's biggest at $25 billion, surpassing a previous global record set by Agricultural Bank of China Ltd in 2010, when the lender raised $22.1 billion.