AgBank to sell 40 percent of HK offer to corporates

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Agricultural Bank of China plans to sell about 40 percent of its Hong Kong initial public share offering to investors such as Middle East and Asian sovereign wealth funds, as well as other global corporations, sources said on Wednesday.

Sources said sovereign funds, including China Investment Corp (CIC), Qatar, Kuwait and Temasek, were seen as likely buyers of pre-IPO stakes in AgBank, along with Dutch group Rabobank, which just signed a strategic agreement with China's third-largest lender.

The so-called cornerstone investors are expected to be signed this week, ahead of Monday's premarketing period.

AgBank is pushing for a valuation of 1.6 price to book, which would place the size of its IPO at about $23 billion to $25 billion, according to the sources, or around $5 billion to $7 billion less than it originally hoped.

The sources were not authorized to speak publicly about the transaction.

AgBank was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Kennix Chim and Fiona Lau in Hong Kong, Michael Wei in Beijing, and Samuel Shen in Shanghai; Editing by Chris Lewis)