China Merchants Securities says IPO freezes up $161 bln

SHANGHAI, Nov 12 (Reuters) - China Merchants Securities Co, which plans to raise up to 11.1 billion yuan through an initial public share offer in Shanghai, said its IPO has been nearly 94 times subscribed, freezing up a huge 1.1 trillion yuan ($161 billion).

The medium-sized brokerage said in an exchange filing on Thursday that it plans to sell 358.55 million shares at 31 yuan apiece, the top end of an indicated price range, in China's third brokerage IPO.

The offering would price the stock at 56.26 times its 2008 earnings per share, Merchants Securities said, based on its enlarged share capital.

The brokerage has said that it would use the proceeds to supplement operational capital, including an expansion in asset management, investment banking, private equity investment, brokerage and proprietary businesses.

Twenty percent of the IPO shares will be sold to institutional investors and the remainder to mainly retail investors.

Merchants Securities, controlled by port-to-property conglomerate China Merchants Group, has appointed Goldman Sachs's (GS.N) China joint venture, and Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N) as underwriters for its Shanghai IPO. ($1=6.825 Yuan) (Reporting by Alfred Cang and Melanie Lee; Editing by Valerie Lee)