Bank of China to list in 2005

Bank of China (BOC) plans to reform into a joint-stock company and list its shares on a stock market in 2005. BOC president Xiao Gang said that the bank would first have to complete its internal regrouping and reform before listing next year.

Xiao added that BOC will use some of the recent government injection of US$22.5 billion to purchase overseas bonds with high credit ratings. He emphasized that the money would be used neither for writing off non-performing loans nor exchanging into renminbi.