The procession of major bank initial public offerings (IPOs) emerging from China are affecting the Top 25 Asia (excluding Japan) ranking. China Construction Bank (CCB), which raised $9.2bn in an IPO in Hong Kong last October, races to the top of the table with $35.6bn of Tier 1 capital, but its stay at the top may be short-lived.
Japan’s banks continue to make steady progress back to health, and many would argue that the big banks are already there. With an aggregate pre-tax profit of $51.3bn, the Japanese banking sector has surpassed last year’s $32.4bn, and left 2003’s pre-tax losses of $39.3bn a distant memory.
The 2005 listing, which reflects fiscal 2004 figures, represents a mirror image of the changes in last year’s listing, which reflected fiscal 2003 figures. As with Tier 1, the aggregate total assets in the 2005 listing grew by 15.5% to a huge $60,501.5bn and this also follows a 19.3% increase the previous year.