Jan. 8, 2007 (China Knowledge) – China's CITIC Bank, the seventh largest commercial bank on the Chinese mainland, has been transformed into a joint-stock company and is likely to list this year.

The bank The State Administration for Industry and Commerce last Sunday issued the previously wholly State-owned bank with a new business license. The bank submitted its share reform plan to the State Council last May. Its president Chen Xiaoxian has said the bank will list in Hongkong early this year and later on mainland stock markets.

Of China’s big four State-owned commercial banks, three have gone public since China launched share reforms in State-owned lenders in 2003. The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), which will be the last one to list. The share reform was designed by the Chinese government to make the untradable shares,about twice as much as the tradable ones, tradable through arrangements between the listed firms or their controling share holders and public investors. The success of the share reform was one of the main reason for the bull run in China’s stock markets in 2006.