Agricultural Bank of China to sell bad assets

Nonperforming loan ratio rises among top 10 listed lenders

The nation's third-largest lender, Agricultural Bank of China Ltd, will sell nonperforming assets valued at 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), the bank said on a briefing on Thursday.

ABC is to sell 19 properties used as collateral, along with seven loans, on the Beijing Financial Assets Exchange, the lender said.

Analysts said that more Chinese lenders may sell nonperforming assets as banks face pressure from souring debts amid an economic slowdown.

An Agricultural Bank of China Ltd outlet in Nanjing. ABC had the highest NPL ratio among the nation's 17 publicly traded lenders, according to first-half earnings reports on the China Banking Regulatory Commission's website. Provided to China Daily

According to statistics from PricewaterhouseCoopers China, outstanding delinquent loans held by the top 10 listed banks stood at 585.8 billion yuan at the end of June, up 20.42 percent from the end of 2012.

The delinquent loan ratio rose from 1.21 percent at the end of 2012 to 1.35 percent at the end of June. The increase signals a possible later rise in NPLs.

The top 10 listed banks are ABC as well as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corp, Bank of China Ltd, Bank of Communications Co Ltd, China Merchants Bank Co Ltd, Industrial Bank Corp Ltd, China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and China Citic Bank International Ltd.

ICBC (the world's most profitable lender), CCB, ABC, BoC and BoComm are the five largest lenders in China. They wrote off 22.1 billion yuan of debt that couldn't be collected as of the end of June, 7.65 billion yuan more than in 2012, according to their exchange filings.

ABC had the highest NPL ratio among the nation's 17 publicly traded lenders, according to first-half earnings reports on the China Banking Regulatory Commission's website.

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