The Agricultural Bank of China is on the verge of gaining crucial central government approval to begin its restructuring plan, a bank official and other senior monetary regulators said yesterday.
On the sidelines of a Beijing financial forum yesterday, Zhu Hongbo, from the bank's Communist Party committee, the institution's de facto decision-maker, said the bank had 'everything ready but the eastern winds', referring to an outside factor crucial to the plan's success.
However, Mr Zhu refused to say whether the 'eastern wind' was State Council approval.
The restructuring would help the bank, saddled with almost 800 billion yuan in bad loans, to conclude three years of preparation for the changes and pave the way to invite in strategic investors and list on the stock market.
To improve the bank's asset quality, Central Huijin, an independent investment arm of China Investment Corp, would inject a certain amount of capital into the bank, according to CIC chairman Lou Jiwei, who spoke at the forum yesterday.
'Following the plan approved by the State Council, Huijin will continue to take part in the reform of China Development Bank and China Agricultural Bank,' Mr Lou said, refusing to be specific.
Vice-Finance Minister Li Yong last month said both banks were expected to receive about US$67 billion from the sovereign fund, about 33 per cent of the fund's assets.
