China’s Postal Bank raises $7bn in pre-IPO funding

The Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) has raised $7bn in its latest round of funding ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO) next year. The state-owned bank has sold a 17% stake to 10 domestic and foreign investors, which included UBS, JPMorgan, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Tencent, China Life Insurance and Alibaba’s Ant Financial.

PSBC said the stake sale was the biggest private fundraising by a Chinese financial institution.

There is been no official confirmation yet of exactly when the IPO will take place. Assuming it goes ahead, PSBC will be the second Asian postal bank to organize an IPO, following Japan Post’s offering in November.

PSBC has more than 40,000 branches spread across China and around half a billion customers.