China AgBank's NPL ratio up in 2007 on accounting

BEIJING, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The non-performing loan ratio of Agricultural Bank of China [ABC.UL], the last major state lender still awaiting a government bailout, rose slightly in 2007 due to stricter accounting rules, Caijing magazine reported on Friday.

The bank's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio rose to 23.64 percent at the end of 2007, from 23.55 percent at the end of 2006, the prominent publication's online edition quoted unnamed sources as saying.

AgBank's outstanding non-performing loans increased by 84 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) last year, rising to 816.1 billion yuan at the end of 2007, it said.

The growth was mainly due to a re-classification of some agriculture-related loans as being non-performing, Caijing quoted AgBank officials as saying.

The bank, which holds more than half of the overall NPLs in China's banking industry, made after-tax profits of 40.5 billion yuan in 2007, state media reported last month.

Analysts expect that the cost of AgBank's bailout, which Chinese officials have said recently is nearly ready, could exceed $100 billion, with about $40 billion of that to come from China Investment Corp, the country's new sovereign wealth fund. ($1=7.1778 yuan) (Reporting by Zhou Xin; Editing by Jason Subler)