China Development Bank (CDB) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) will have to wait, perhaps for a long period, for their initial public offerings (IPOs), a senior banking official said.

They are the only two large Chinese banks yet to complete their restructuring into joint-stock companies.

Yi Gang, vice governor of People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said the two banks' IPO will be delayed by the global financial turmoil. They will have to wait for the right time in the future, Yi told his audience during a seminar held by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

CDB is one of China's major policy banks, whose total assets are worth about 3 trillion yuan (US$438 billion).

ABC is the last to go public among China's four largest commercial banks, whose total assets are reportedly worth some 6.6 trillion yuan. ABC's restructuring plan was approved by the Chinese central government in October.

(China Daily December 19, 2008)