Mumbai: China Citic Bank Corporation, the country''s eighth-largest bank, raised $5.4 billion in stock sale in the world''s biggest stock offer this year, reports quoting market sources said.

The offer of shares through listing in the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets, raised the targeted maximum, reports said. The stock sale values the state-owned company at $28.9 billion.

Beijing-based Citic Bank sold new yuan-denominated shares in Shanghai at 5.8 yuan apiece, raising 13.34 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) and sold another 4.89 billion shares in Hong Kong at HK$5.86 apiece, raising HK$28.66 billion ($3.7 billion), sources said.

The shares are believed to have been oversubscribed several times as individual investors sought more than 200 times the number of shares available in the Hong Kong offering while institutional investors sought over 80 times the issue size, reports said.

The Shanghai sales attracted orders worth over a trillion yuan, excluding shares earmarked for corporate investors, the sources said.

Citic Bank shares were priced at the top end of indicative ranges of 5 yuan to 5.80 yuan for the Shanghai portion, and HK$5.06 to HK$5.86 for the Hong Kong part.

The sale values Citic Bank at 2.75 times its estimated 2007 book value, assuming it increases the Hong Kong offering by another 15 per cent to cover excess demand.

China has the most expensive banking stocks among Asia''s emerging markets, at about 3.2 times estimated book value, compared with 1.7 times for peers in India and 1.4 times in South Korea, according to a Morgan Stanley report.

China International Capital Corp., Citigroup Inc., Citic Securities Co., HSBC Holdings Plc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. arranged the offering.

Chinese banks led by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. have raised almost $60 billion selling shares in the past two years.