Property giant Vanke plans to buy as much as $442 million in stock as a cornerstone investor for Huishang Bank, a provincial lender in East China planning an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

Vanke is set to buy nearly 884 million shares in Huishang, worth 3 billion yuan ($490 million), which will see it holding about 8 percent of Huishang's shares, 21st Century Business Herald reported on Tuesday.

Analysts see Vanke's move as an initial step in entering the financial sector and also as an important step toward expanding in Anhui province, where it has property programs in only two of the 17 cities.

Six cornerstone investors have pledged to buy up to $639 million worth of shares in Huishang Bank's IPO.

Huishang is selling 2.61 billion shares, according to the term sheet. Some 95.7 percent of the stock is in the form of new shares, offered in an indicative range of HK$3.47 ($0.45) to HK$3.88 each.

BOC International, Citic Securities International, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS AG have been hired as sponsors of the IPO.