Shares in China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC), the country's leading railway builder, began trading in Shanghai on Monday following a record initial public offering (IPO) last month.

The IPO raised 22.25 billion yuan ($3.1 billion), making it the largest new offering in the Asia-Pacific region this year. The IPO was heavily oversubscribed, attracting 3.12 trillion yuan in bids.

CRCC also debuts in Hong Kong this week, with trading opening on Thursday.

CRCC made a name for itself by building the Qinghai-Tibet railroad. It also won a major share of the civil engineering work on the long-delayed express railway linking Beijing and Shanghai.

According to its prospectus, CRCC remains the biggest holder of the shares with 74.68 percent of the total. Haitong Securities Corp Ltd took 0.21 percent of the shares.

Other primary shareholders include China Life Insurance Co Ltd, Taikang Life Insurance Co Ltd, Pacific Life Insurance Co and the Pacific Insurance Co Ltd.

CRCC cut the number of A-shares it offered to 2.45 billion from 2.8 billion after reconsidering its capital demand.

The company's total assets amounted to 155 billion yuan at the end of November 2007, with net profit reaching 2.8 billion yuan.