BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China's securities regulator has approved an application for an initial public offering (IPO) by the Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC), one of China's state-owned commercial lenders.

The company, already listed in Hong Kong, applied to issue up to 5.17 billion shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, according to the company's prospectus filed with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

In February, the bank was included as one of China's large state-owned commercial bank by the country's banking regulator.

The IPO is expected to raise at least 20 billion yuan (about 2.9 billion U.S. dollars), according to analysts.

The PSBC reported that its net profit attributable to shareholders in the first quarter of this year amounted to about 18.55 billion yuan, up 12.28 percent year on year, according to the bank's filing to the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited.

PSBC's operating income in Q1 was about 68.47 billion yuan, up 8.28 percent year on year, while its total asset exceeded 10 trillion yuan in the Q1, surpassing the 9.52 trillion yuan at the end of 2018, according to the filing.