Feb.2 - The Agricultural Bank of China expects to complete its financial restructuring in the second half of this year, but the central government has yet to decide on an exact reorganization plan, a top official said yesterday.

 

How much capital the government injects will be determined after completion of external audits and asset evaluation, said the bank's vice-president Han Zhongqi.

 

The global accounting firm Deloitte is performing an audit of the bank's assets that should be finished at the end of this month. And the National Auditing Office has also started auditing the bank.

 

"In the financial restructuring, we aim to get all key financial indicators in shape to meet the requirements of the industry supervisor and for public listing," Han said.

 

Its goal is to cut the bad loan ratio to less than 5 percent from 23.5 percent at the end of last year.

 

The bank also aims to set aside assets to cover more than 60 percent of the bad loans, up from just 4.6 percent now, to meet requirements set by the banking regulator.

 

The bank's overhaul was listed as one of top priorities in the country's financial reforms this year at the National Financial Work Conference held last month.

 

The bank may follow the restructuring steps of the other three State commercial banks government capital injections, clearing non-performing loans, establishing shareholding companies, introducing strategic investors and seeking opportunities for listing, Han said.

 

But "the capital amount we need may be bigger" than that required by the other restructured banks, he said.

 

The bank has about 300 billion in bad assets generated by lending to meet government policies and some special loans, Han said.

 

Xinhua said that the bank is likely to get a $25 billion to $30 billion capital infusion in the first half of the year.

 

Han said it is too early to talk about that, as well as other reform details, such as introducing strategic investors or an initial public offering.

 

He stressed that the bank will not further cut its branch network and staff size this year during the restructuring.

 

It closed 24,000 branches and pared its workforce by 170,000 jobs over the past few years.

 

It still has the largest banking network, with 24,900 branches and 452,000 employees nationwide.