China's CDB adopts joint stock co structure-sources

BEIJING (Reuters) - State-owned China Development Bank (CDB) has completed its conversion into a joint stock company, marking another step in the policy lender's transformation along commercial lines, banking sources said on Monday.

A ceremony to mark the creation of China Development Bank Corp, a new shareholding company with limited liability, was held in Beijing on Monday morning, the sources, who declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media, told Reuters.

The change comes almost a year after CDB received a $20 billion capital injection from China Investment Corp, the country's sovereign wealth fund.

Officials hope the reform of CDB, one of three "policy banks" that lend explicitly in line with the government's economic priorities, will culminate in a stock market listing.

China's National Social Security Fund has said that it intends to become a strategic investor in CDB.

CDB, which holds a 3.1 percent stake in British bank Barclays (BARC.L), will also probably bring in strategic overseas investors at some stage, according to bankers.

CDB, founded in 1994, specialises in financing for construction and development of infrastructure and core industries. Among the projects it has financed is the Three Gorges dam.