Related stories

HSBC Receives Approval for Joint Venture Fund Management Company in China Rocky Route to Business Success The First Step for New Business Thinking About Business in New Years Alexandre Fauvet talks about Business Beijing

ICBC Becomes Joint-stock Company

China's biggest State-owned bank on October 28 became a joint-stock company, a step along its way to becoming listed on a stock market, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The new company, assuming all business and relevant assets and debts of the former Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), was inaugurated with a registered capital of 248 billion yuan (US$30.6 billion).

It was sponsored by the Ministry of Finance and Central Huijin Investment Corporation Limited, a central government investment arm that supports China's aggressive financial reform.

A board of directors, supervisors and its senior management have been chosen for the bank.

"Standard corporate governance has taken initial shape," the bank said in a statement.

China is overhauling its four biggest state banks, including the China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of China (BOC) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), before it fully opens its banking industry to foreign competition in late 2006 under commitments made as a part of its entry into the World Trade Organization.

The Chinese banks are expected to streamline their operations and become "commercial banks in a real sense" as required by the government, by establishing shareholding systems, inviting strategic foreign investors and then going public.

CCB made its debut on October 27 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Vice-President Yang Kaisheng of the ICBC revealed earlier that the country's biggest bank, assets-wise, would hopefully sell shares at an "appropriate time" next year.

The ICBC has more than 21,000 business outlets on the Chinese mainland, serving more than 8 million enterprises and more than 100 million individual clients.

Its capital-adequacy ratio, or a measure of its available capital in proportion to its outstanding loans, rose to 9.12 percent at the end of June, already above the required 8 percent international standard. Its non-performing loan ratio was 2.72 percent.