China's Ministry of Finance is getting ready to write off its 41 billion dollar stake in two big state-run banks to prepare the large lenders for stock-market listings, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The decision to pull out of Bank of China and China Construction Bank follows a massive 45 billion dollar bailout plan for the two banks announced by the State Council, or cabinet, last week.
The New York Times, citing unidentified Chinese bankers, said the move was aimed at preparing both banks for share offers in Hong Kong and overseas later this year or in 2005.
It said the injection of the 45 billion dollars and the write-off of the 41 billion dollars shows that China is quickening its pace in dealing with its financial sector problems.
China's banks have long been weighed down by bad debt left over from the days when state-directed lending propped up the country's money-losing state enterprises.
Under the government's reform plan, the two banks will restructure their assets and increase their capital adequacy ratios, which should then allow them to tackle the thorny problem of bad loans.
The government is also set to pump about 40 billion dollars into the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), another of the Big Four state banks, state media has reported.
Neither the Bank of China nor the China Construction Bank had any comment on Wednesday.
The Finance Ministry held 26.6 billion dollars in equity in the Bank of China and 14.5 billion dollars in China Construction Bank prior to the fund injection last month, the New York Times said.
The bail-out involved the transfer of 45 billion dollars from the country's massive forex reserves of some 400 billion dollars into Central Huijun Investment, which effectively then took a stake in both banks. The fresh funds were not allowed to be used directly to write down bad loans.
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