China Citic Bank Corp may raise as much as $5.7 billion in a simultaneous Hong Kong and Shanghai initial public offering, the world's largest stock sale so far this year, three people with knowledge of the details said.

China Citic Bank Corp may raise as much as $5.7 billion in a simultaneous Hong Kong and Shanghai initial public offering, the world's largest stock sale so far this year, three people with knowledge of the details said.

The bank, based in Beijing, plans to offer 2.3 billion new shares in Shanghai to raise up to $1.8 billion, the people said. The company may raise a further $3.9 billion selling 4.9 billion shares in Hong Kong, they said.

Mainland banks and insurers have sold $61.1 billion of shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai since June 2005, when Bank of Communications Co became the first domestic bank to go public in Hong Kong. They have been encouraged by high valuations as investors seek to benefit from China's rapid economic growth.

At the upper end, Citic Bank's sale could be the world's largest stock sale so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It could trump a $5.5 billion closed-end fund launch in the US and a secondary share sale by Ping An Insurance (Group) Co, China's No. 2 insurer, which raised slightly more than $5 billion in February.

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