(Yicai Global) Aug. 11 -- China Telecom’s upcoming flotation on the Shanghai stock market, just half a year after the state-owned carrier was removed from the New York bourse after being added to a US blacklist, looks set to be the biggest listing on the mainland in the past ten years.

China Telecom is expected to rake in as much as CNY54.1 billion (USD8.3 billion) if it fully exercises the greenshoe option, which allows underwriters to allocate an additional 15 percent of shares at the same offering price for 30 days after the date of listing. This would push the carrier past the CNY53.2 billion secured by chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp on its Shanghai debut last year.

China Telecom has priced its shares at CNY4.53 (USD0.70) each, almost double the price of its Hong Kong stock [HKG:0728], which was trading up 5.88 percent at HKD3.06 (USD0.39) at 2 p.m. China time today.

It is already highly subscribed, with 0.9536 out of every 100 applicants getting an allotment, China Telecom said yesterday. This is the third highest ratio ever on the mainland stock markets.

China Telecom, which logged a 27.2 percent jump in profit in the first half and a 13.1 percent leap in revenue, will be only the fifth firm to use the over-allotment option on the mainland, a measure that can help stabilize the pricing of newly listed shares.

The Beijing-based company has set aside half of its share issuance for 20 strategic investors which include tech giant Huawei Technologies and videostreaming platform Shanghai Bilibili Technology as well as investment funds China Structural Reform Fund and the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II.

Editor: Kim Taylor