Executive: BOC targets IPO in 1st qtr of 2006
(bloomberg.com)
Updated: 2005-11-15 20:54

Bank of China, the nation's second- largest lender, plans to sell shares publicly in the first quarter of next year, following China Construction Bank Corp. as the second of the biggest state-owned banks to list.

"We haven't yet decided the location for the listing but we are sticking to the plan to sell shares early next year," Bank of China Vice President Li Zaohang said at a briefing in Beijing today. The bank hasn't decided where to sell shares yet, he said.

Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte still hasn't got approval from Bank of China's state-owned controlling shareholder to buy a $3.1 billion stake in the lender, Li said.

Caijing Magazine, a Beijing-based publication, said on Nov. 1 that Central Huijin Investment Corp. opposed the size of the investment on concern it might destabilize the banking system. Huijin holds 100 percent of Bank of China's shares on behalf of the State Council, or Cabinet.

The approval process is ``proceeding normally,'' Wang Zhaowen, a spokesman for Bank of China, said on Nov. 1.