('''ICBC''') (, more commonly just 工行 Gōngháng) is the largest of
China 's
Big Four state-owned commercial banks, the other 3 banks being the
Bank Of China ,
Agricultural Bank Of China , and
China Construction Bank , the largest bank in the world in terms of market value and one of the world's top 10 banks by
Asset s.
It was founded as a limited company on In July 2007, with a
Market Capitalisation of US$254 billion it became the world's most valuable bank after a strong gain in its share price, overtaking
Citigroup China ICBC tops Citigroup as world's biggest bank .
The bank's
Hong Kong operations are listed under the name
ICBC Asia . It has purchased the Hong Kong subsidiary of
Fortis Bank and rebranded it under its own name on
10 October 2005 .
In the runup to its planned
Initial Public Offering , on
28th April 2006 , three "strategic investors" injected US$3.7 billion into ICBC :
ICBC was simultaneously listed on both the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange and
Shanghai Stock Exchange on
27 October 2006 . It was the world's largest
IPO to date, surpassing the previous record US$18.4 billion IPO by
Japan 's
NTT DoCoMo in
1998 .
{Link without Title} China’s largest commercial bank is also the first company to debut simultaneously on both the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges.
ICBC raised at least US$14 billion in
Hong Kong (
H-shares ) and another US$5.1 billion in
Shanghai (
A-shares ). Due to heavy subscriptions, the
Greenshoe (i.e. over-allotment) placements were exercised and ICBC's take rose to US$21.9 billion (17% of ICBC's market value before the IPO), divided in US$16 billion in Hong Kong and US$5.9 billion in Shanghai. Following the global offering, the
Free Float of shares was 22.14% of the
Market Capitalization .
At the end of its first day of trading, the bank’s shares closed up almost 15% at HK$3.52 in Hong Kong, compared with the listing price of HK$3.07, which was set at the top of the indicative range due to the strong demand. According to
Bloomberg , ICBC’s
Market Capitalisation at the end of trade based on its Hong Kong shares was US$156.3 billion, making it the world’s fifth largest bank, just behind
JPMorgan Chase . Meanwhile, ICBC’s Shanghai-listed A-shares recorded more modest gains and ended up 5.1% from the offering price of RMB 3.12.
ICBC has 2.5 million corporate customers and 150 million individual customers
{Link without Title} . In 2005, net profit was up 12.4% to RMB 33.7 billion, and the total loan balance was RMB 3,289.5 billion. Total liabilities are RMB 6,196.2 billion, up 11.2%. Delinquent or
Non-performing Loan s (NPL) total RMB 154.4 billion, a significant reduction although the figures are widely regarded as being somewhat higher than officially stated. It has an NPL ratio of 4.69% and a
Capital Adequacy Ratio of 9.89%.
In millions of Chinese RMB (Yuan):
- Manufacturing: 662,376, 20.1% (28.7% in 2004)
- Transportation, storage, postage & telecommunications: 367,371, 11.2% (10.2% in 2004)
- Power, gas and water: 281,179, 8.6% (7.0% in 2004)
- Retail and wholesale, catering: 265,906, 8.1% (6.9% in 2004)
- Property development: 194,024, 5.9%, (5.6% in 2004)
- Social service organization: 103,070, 3.1%, (3.2% in 2004)
- Construction: 89,666, 2.7%, (2.1% in 2004)
- Other Industries: 313,804, 9.5%, (12.1% in 2004)
- Discounted bills: 392,717, 11.9%, (8.4% in 2004)
- Personal Loans: 515,042, 15.7%, (13.1% in 2004)
- Overseas Business:104,398, 3.2%, (2.7% in 2004)
Total: 3,289,553
- Secured by Mortgages: 34.1%
- Secured by other collateral: 22.1%
- Guaranteed loans: 23.3%
- Unsecured loans: 20.5%
At the end of 2004, 19.1% of ICBC's portfolio consisted of -based state company,
China Huarong , helped ICBC dispose of its bad loans. As the 2005 annual report records, just under 5% of loans are classified as non-performing, in comparison with the majority of western banks who have lower NPL ratios (US commercial banks around 1%)
{Link without Title} .
- February, 2005: A Hunan branch manager was convicted of bribery and imprisoned for 19 years.
- April, 2006: An assistant branch manager in Guangdong found guilty on similar charges and jailed for 12 years.
