In August $2010,$ Agricultural Bank of China $($ABC$)$ completed its initial public offering $($IPO$)$ in Shanghai and Hong Kong, raising $$22\mathrm{.}1$ billion. Despite the weak market sentiment in Asian stock markets and fears that shares were genelly overvalued at the time, investors poured money into one of China's largest lenders. Today, ABC has over $320$ million customers across $24,000$ branches. ABC's flotation proved to be the world's largest ever at the time, beating the previous record of $$21\mathrm{.}9$ billion set by the IPO of China's largest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China $($ICBC$)$ in October $2006.$

$($a$)$ Define the term initial public offering.

$[2$ marks$]$

$($b$)$ Explain why Agricultural Bank of China $(ABC)$ might have decided to float its shares on the stock market. $[4$ marks$]$

$($c$)$ Explain why investors might have been so keen to buy shares in ABC, despite the weak market sentiment in Asian stock markets at the time.

$[4$ marks$]$

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