Chongqing bank to join competition for international investors

Following the successful listing of Agricultural Bank of China in Hong Kong and Shanghai four months ago, another Chinese bank is about to join the competition for international investors. Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank CRCB, which kicks off the institutional bookbuilding today, will be the ninth Chinese bank to go public in Hong Kong, but the first among the country’s city commercial banks, offering investors exposure to a different part of China’s financial markets.

While significantly smaller than the Big Four state-owned banks and the mid-cap national banks listed in Hong Kong, CRCB’s positioning as a market leader in one of China’s fastest growing regions, with key metrics like asset quality, fee income and...