Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China's biggest lender by assets, is expected to list its shares in Hong Kong as early as September, a news report said Tuesday, joining a state banks listing rush.

 

The ICBC's initial public offering (IPO) is estimated at HK$100 billion, one of the highest in the world, a Xinhua-run economic newspaper said.

 

The bank plans to submit its listing application to the Hong Kong stock exchange for scrutiny, the report said, citing an unnamed senior manager of the bank.

 

China's banking regulator gave the nod for the bank's IPO plan in mid-March.

 

ICBC is also projected to issue the renminbi-denominated A-shares in China's inland market on the heels of its Hong Kong listing. A previewing view among Chinese brokerages is that the bank's A-share offering will be materialized later this year, if market conditions are suitable.

 

ICBC president Yang Kaisheng, quoted by the newspaper, said the bank has a "concrete timetable" for its listing preparations.

 

The bank's chairman Jiang Jianqing has said he expects the bank, by stock market value, to become one of the world's top 10 banks, with 2006 business profits exceeding 100 billion yuan (US$12.5 billion).

 

Chinese banks have piled up a mountain of problem debts over the past decades due to reckless -- usually government-ordered -- lending to state-owned enterprises, sapping their competitiveness, analysts acknowledge.

 

However they have been moving to shed off hefty bad debts, push forward joint-stock reform, invite foreign investors, try to secure stock market listings and take other measures to help streamline operations prior to fully opening the country's financial markets to foreign rivals -- under a commitment to the World Trade Organization -- by the end of this year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2006)