Domestic bank's IPO in final stages
23/10/2003 16:36
Two of the Chinese Big-Four banks will be allowed to go public
domestically and overseas within the coming two years, a move expected to deepen
the reforms of the debt-ridden Chinese banking system, sina.com.cn reported
today.
The plan is under final deliberation, and hasn't officially been
released to public yet, said an industry analyst.
A large volume of bad
debts will be transformed to government-holding asset management companies, with
a small part covered by government funds, the analyst said.
At least two
commercial banks have employed famous global auditing enterprises to take their
first step toward initial public offerings (IPOs), the analyst
added.
Price-Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) will continue to act as the auditor for
the Bank of China, dubbed as the one with the best financial status among the
big-four banks: (the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Bank of
China (BOC), China Construction Bank (CCB) and Agricultural Bank of China
(ABC)).
The ICBC, with its total loans topping the list, employed Ernst &
Young as auditors.
ICBC plans to cut its bad loan radio from the existing 22
percent to 10 percent by 2006. "ICBC is likely to go pubic by 2006, possibly on
both the domestic and overseas market simultaneously, with the overseas markets
including Hong Kong, New York and Singapore," said a manager with the
bank.
The spokesman with BOC refused to reveal their listing plan, despite
the rumor that it will go public as early as 2005.
The China Construction
Bank, following BOC and ICBC in listing procedures, announced Tuesday that its
bad loan ratio was down four percentage points to 11.92 percent by the end of
September.
The Agricultural Bank of China, with a 30 percent bad loan ratio
at the end of last year, is predicted to be the last one among the big-four
banks to go public.
Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news
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