China Everbright Group restructures for public listing

    BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- China Everbright Group, a state-owned financial conglomerate under the State Council, will complete a capital injection into Everbright Bank Co. for its financial restructuring in September, and schedule its initial public offering next year, the China Securities Journal reported on Tuesday.

    The group was reorganizing its financial assets, and would bring in strategic investors such as commercial banks at international level "when needed," said Tang Shuangning, chairman of Everbright Group.

    The plan for the bank's restructuring has been approved by regulators, according to a statement posted on its website.

    The restructuring would divide the Everbright Group into two companies with the Everbright Financial Holding Company managing the financial assets and the Everbright Industrial Company controlling non-financial assets, Tang said.

    Central Huijin, the central bank's investment arm, would inject capital into both Everbright Bank and Everbright Group at the same time, and be the controlling shareholder in the restructured companies, he said.

    The group would continue to be the shareholder of Everbright Securities Company Limited and Everbright Bank, and raise prospects for Everbright Securities with the listing of the two companies, said Tang.

    Established in 1992, Everbright Bank is a nationwide joint-stock commercial bank with the government as controlling shareholder and equity investment from international financial institutions.

    The bank, 45.6 percent owned by China Everbright Group and its Hong Kong-listed unit, is saddled with debts partly because of its takeover of the troubled China Investment Bank in 1999, with its capital adequacy ratio far below the requirement of the Chinese banking regulator.

    Three of China's four leading state-owned commercial banks and six of its 12 mid-sized commercial banks have been listed on the domestic market.

    Earlier reports said Central Huijin was set to inject 40 billion U.S. dollars into the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), the only one of the big four state-owned commercial banks that remains unlisted.