Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China's largest commercial bank, said yesterday operating profit is expected to rise by at least 11 percent this year.

 

The bank said in a statement it had set its operating profit target for this year at 100 billion yuan (US$12 billion), up 10.8 percent from last year.

 

Capital adequacy ratio is expected to reach 10.4 percent, up from 10.26 percent from the end of last year, while the non-performing loan ratio will be kept below 4.2 percent, as compared to 4.43 percent at the end of last year.

 

The bank has shown an improving financial profile in recent years, paving the way for an IPO scheduled before the end of this year. Operating profit jumped by 800 percent in the five years ending 2005, while the NPL ratio had dropped by more than 30 percentage points, from 34.44 percent at the end of 2000.

 

Preparations for the IPO are well under way: "After overseas strategic investors were ushered in successfully, ICBC has started preparations for the IPO, and will try to sell shares as soon as possible," the bank said in the statement.

 

It is remodelling internal systems and has created new departments responsible for financial market operations and asset liability management.

 

Goldman Sachs, Germany's Allianz and credit card company American Express agreed to invest a combined US$3.78 billion in ICBC last month in a long-awaited deal, with Goldman taking a 7 percent stake for US$2.58 billion.

 

The State-owned lender received US$15 billion in capital injection last April from the Chinese Government, while 284 billion yuan (US$35 billion) of NPLs were transferred from its balance sheet to asset management companies.

 

China launched a major reform of its "Big Four" State-owned lenders at the end of 2003, when it invested a combined US$45 billion of capital into Bank of China (BOC) and China Construction Bank (CCB). The latter was listed in Hong Kong earlier this month, raising US$8 billion.

 

The authorities are still considering a reform plan for the Agricultural Bank of China, the weakest of the four lenders.

 

To ensure improved profitability, ICBC is seeking to optimize the structure of loan portfolio, by increasing support to strong-growth sectors such as infrastructure and high technologies and restricting lending to sectors suffering overcapacity, such as steel and cement, it said.

 

The bank will also try to diversify income sources by boosting investment and fee-based services.

 

It expects an electronic banking system to handle 30 percent of the transactions this year, which would help the bank reduce operational costs by making it possible to shut down unprofitable outlets.

 

The ICBC reported noticeable structural improvements last year. The percentage of loans in total assets dropped to 51 percent, from nearly 70 percent five years earlier.

 

Meanwhile, the share of interest income in total income shrank from 70 percent in 2000 to last year's 53 percent, reducing its reliance on lending operations.

 

(China Daily February 15, 2006)