China Construction Bank, one of the country's four largest state-owned banks, said Friday it plans to list its shares simultaneously on stock exchanges in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, New York and on the mainland.

"If the situation is favorable, we will try our best to do that," Bank President Zhang Enzhao said on Friday in Beijing.

The bank, which has set a timetable to go public before the end of the year, is expected to raise US$5-US$10 billion from the initial public offering, earlier reports said.

Economists said that if the plan succeeds, the bank will become the first firm on the Chinese mainland to seek a listing domestically and abroad at the same time.

China Construction Bank and Bank of China were chosen by the State Council last year to participate in a pilot program to turn the country's four largest state-owned banks into joint stock banks.

Also last year, the government injected US$22.5 billion to the bank to increase its capital base.

The bank, which earned 51.2 billion yuan (US$6.2 billion) in profit last year before setting aside provisions for bad loans, said earlier its non-performing loan ratio was cut to 9.25 percent by the end of last year, based on international standards.

This year, the bank sets a profit growth target of 18 percent before setting aside bad loan provisions.

"More profits and improved asset quality would help our bank become more competitive on the international market," Zhang said.

China Construction Bank will give key attention to the improvement of corporate governance and internal structure reform to achieve the profit growth goal, Zhang said.

The bank will also beef up risk management capabilities to further improve its asset quality, he said.

(China Daily March 6, 2004)