China is allowing its citizens to buy physical gold bars. This new program is unleashing an unbridled demand for the metal. The program works this way: The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China's largest, sells the bars to customers at real-time prices. Persons who own the bars can resell them to the bank.

To give you an insight into the magnitude of these sales, here are a few statistics. The ICBC sold 7 tons of bullion in January alone. In all of 2010, sales were only 15 tons.

Over the past couple months, major financial institutions have been scrambling to raise large amounts of capital -- so as to ultimately payoff government loans. Just take a look at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), which has $10 billion in TARP loans.

This week, the firm sold a piece of its equity stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC), pulling in a cool $1.9 billion. The massive Chinese bank -- which has a market cap of $220 billion -- is listed in Hong Kong.

Yet, Goldman still holds a significant stake in ICBC; that is, about 4%. Actually, the firm won't be able to sell any more shares until April 28, 2010, when a contractual lock-up expires.

Over the years, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has amassed a hefty portfolio of investments.

And now the firm may be ready to take some money off the table -- especially to pay down the onerous TARP loans.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal [a paid publication], it looks like Goldman is thinking about unloading a part of its 4.9% stake in the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. It could result in more than a billion in cash (or about 15% to 20% of the equity stake). The deal could happen by late April (this is when a lock-up expires on the investment).

China's largest bank, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., has shown its planned date for its long-awaited IPO. The price will be determined on October 23 and it should debut for trading on October 27, assuming there are no major market changes. Its stock will initially only be listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai. This may make it hard for US and European retail investors and many US-only institutions to participate in what appears to be the world's biggest initial public offering ever.

ICBC hopes to raise up to an equivalent of $19 billion and if this amount is raised it would break the IPO record of $18.4 Billion raised in the 1998 IPO of Japan's mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo.

Before any over-allotments over subscriber indications, ICBC plans to issue 13 billion A shares priced in Chinese currency in Shanghai and 35.39 billion H shares. The actual price range is not indicated, but that is equal to 14.8% of its share capital. The company has indicated that up to 16.7 percent of total capital could be raised if the subscriptions come in higher than expected. If these numbers are accurate on the base amount, it would put the overall equivalent market cap of "ICBC" at roughly $128 billion. That number may not be accurate because of share discrepancies, but there is over one month yet to figure out the comparative details.

PRIOR CAPITAL RAISED

"ICBC" already plans to sell IPO shares worth $3.5 billion to strategic investors from government investment agencies from Kuwait, Qatar and Singapore. It also received a commitment in June from China's social security fund to invest an equivalent of $2.25 billion in the bank. Another group of global financial powerhouses including Goldman Sachs, American Express and Allianz AG invested about $3.78 billion back in January, 2006. That totals over $9.5 billion raised so far in capital this year alone and not all of that may be on the prospectus by the actual IPO date. ICBC listed assets of 6.5 trillion Yuan ($800 billion) as of the end of 2005.