In the first half of this year, the net profit of the China Minsheng Banking Corporation reached 1.27 billion yuan (US$157 million), up 16.03 percent year on year, the China Securities Journal reported on Tuesday.

According to the bank's half-year report that appeared in the newspaper, the total assets of Minsheng exceeded 500 billion yuan. The bank plans to earn net profit of 2.55 billion yuan in 2005.

China Minsheng Bank, established in Beijing on Jan. 12, 1996, is a national shareholding commercial bank focused on aiding non-state-owned industrial and commercial enterprises.

During the January-June period, the bank's income from staple services totaled 11.2 billion yuan, up 36 percent year on year.

Minsheng, listed in the Shanghai Stock Market (SHA 600016), has been planning to go public in the Hong Kong stock market for years.

The bank, with its capital adequacy ratio only 8.05 percent by the end of June 2005, is making all-out effort to solve its fund inadequacy problem.

The China Construction Bank is expected to make its initial public offering in the Hong Kong stock market in the latter half of this year, bringing new pressure to the Minsheng's debut ambition in the HK bourse, the newspaper said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2005)