The deal could be the first major investment into Russia by an Asian country.
Kommersant said the acquisition was entering its final phase. "The parties to the deal have come to terms, the documents will be signed in the near future, and the payment could be effected late this or early next year," a source close to the Russian bank's shareholders told the daily.
Managing company RosEuroGroup denied comments on the deal Thursday, and the ICBC's Moscow office did not reply to the paper's written enquiry citing confidentiality of the talks, Kommersant said.
Russia's state anti-monopoly regulator, however, has admitted that ICBC representatives have enquired about "rules for filing an application to buy RosEuroBank," the paper said, adding that the service gave no further details of the deal.
Citing sources close to the deal, Kommersant said ICBC, the world's largest bank in terms of capitalization (over $225 billion), would pay some $800-$850 million for RosEuroBank, or four times the Russian bank's capital.
Established in 1994, RosEuroBank's net assets amount to 46.8 billion rubles (about $2 billion) and capital to 5.5 billion rubles (about $224 million). RosEuroBank has 12 branches in Moscow and 26 elsewhere in the country.
"The high price is due to the Chinese's big interest in our market and the Russian shareholders' unwillingness to sell their assets cheaply," an analyst with KIT Finance investment, Maria Kalvarskaya, told the paper.
Analysts also say investors are willing to overpay for lower risk, as the Russian market has been largely unaffected by the global financial crisis.
Experts quoted by the paper suggest that once the deal is finalized RosEuroGroup will focus on the real estate sector, a more lucrative business with a greater growth potential.
