Battle looms for US float of Chinese banking giant

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The Times
By Caroline Merrell, Banking Correspondent

WESTERN investment banks desperate for a slice of the booming Chinese economy are queueing up to advise the country’s biggest state-owned bank on its New York flotation.

In the coming weeks, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), will hold a beauty parade of likely candidates.

Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, UBS and JP Morgan Chase are all expected to compete aggressively.

ICBC, a commercial bank which already has partial listing in Hong Kong, is expected to float on the New York Stock Exchange next year. ICBC has more than 100 million personal customers, 8.1 million corporate clients, 20,000 branches and 390,000 staff. It is expected to make an operating profit of around 75 billion yuan (£4.4 billion) for 2004, a rise of 20 per cent on 2003.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1421509,00.html