Jan. 23, 2007 (China Knowledge) – China’s Industrial Bank, which is planning to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, plans to significantly boost its retail banking business by using part of the US$2 billion it hopes raise from its initial public offering.

The mid-sized bank, which intends to issue 1.33 million A-shares on the SSE, aims to derive 30% of its total profits from retail banking in four years, its president Li Renjie told investors on an online roadshow for its IPO.

Li did not disclose the percentage of profit now contributed by its retail division, but industry sources said it was about 10%.

“The key to grow our retail business is to grow our sales power and to build a bigger service network,” Li said. He also said the bank will focus on growing its personal loan business, which will help it grow its wealth management services and payment business.

Industrial Bank’s biggest shareholder is the Fujian provincial government, which owns 25.5%. The Singapore government and the World Bank's International Finance Corp own a 5% and 4% stake respectively.

The lender had assets of RMB 532 billion in June last year. Profit for the first six months of 2006 was RMB 1.7 billion, more than half of the RMB 2.5 billion for the fiscal 2005. Revenue in 2005 rose 43% to RMB 9.3 billion due to higher investment returns.