China AgBank says IPO possible by 2010 -newspaper

SHANGHAI, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Agricultural Bank of China [ABC.UL], one of the country's "Big Four" state-run lenders, may offer shares to the public by 2010, an official Chinese newspaper quoted its top manager as saying.

Xiang Junbo, president of Agricultural Bank (AgBank), told staff at a recent internal meeting that he planned to build the institution into "a bank in which the public can own shares" by 2010, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Saturday.

AgBank, the only one of the four lenders that has not yet received a government bailout, has repeatedly stated its interest in going public, but had not given a specific timeframe.

Many analysts had believed Agbank might list on a domestic stock market as soon as this year, after it completes internal restructuring. Xiang's latest remarks may indicate the bank needs more time to deal with bad debt and strengthen its management.

AgBank is saddled with hundreds of billions of yuan of non-performing loans, a legacy of weak risk controls and politically directed lending to farmers and rural businesses.

In recent years it has focused more on profitable urban areas but agreement on its restructuring has been delayed by the government's desire for it to continue playing a big role in supporting rural development.

AgBank's bailout could cost over $100 billion, with about $40 billion of that to come from China Investment Corp, the country's new sovereign wealth fund, analysts say.

Xiang, a former deputy governor of China's central bank, was quoted as saying he aimed to transform AgBank into "a globally famous bank" by 2012, and into a China-focused bank with global operations by 2017.

Beijing-based Agbank made after-tax profits of 40.5 billion yuan ($5.6 billion) in 2007, after deducting capital costs and certain provisions, Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday.

Chinese officials said late last year that preparations for AgBank's restructuring were proceeding smoothly and the government was nearly ready to inject capital into the lender.

Xinhua also said on Friday the bank wrote off 57.4 billion yuan of non-performing assets in 2007. In 2006, AgBank reported record operating profits of 58.1 billion yuan and wiped 4.2 billion yuan worth of non-performing loans off its books.

Xiang said his bank would continue to support the development of China's rural sector in the next few years, but wanted to cover the national financial market including big cities by 2017, the Shanghai Securities News reported. ($1=7.21 Yuan) (Reporting by George Chen; Editing by Ramthan Hussain)