Bank of China plans to make its long-awaited initial public share offering in March or April, Zhu Xinqiang, the assistant to the bank's president, was quoted by state media on Monday as saying.
Bank of China named Goldman Sachs and UBS A.G. in August to manage its planned $4 billion stock listing.
The bank has provisionally decided to list in Hong Kong in March or April, depending on market conditions, the official Shanghai Securities News cited Zhu as saying at an economic forum in Beijing.
The bank had completed its search for strategic investors, Zhu said.
Four investors - Asian Development Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Singapore state investment agency Temasek Holdings, and UBS - will together take 24 percent of Bank of China.
Another 15 percent will be offered through the IPO, the paper said.
China's largest state-backed banks are planning IPOs and enlisting strategic foreign investors to bring cash and badly needed expertise ahead of the opening up of China's domestic banking market to foreign lenders in late 2006.