Minsheng, whose shares were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2000, has relatively little bad debt compared with other Chinese lenders, especially the big state-run banks. It reported non-performing loans (NPLs) at 1.31% of total lending by the end of 2004, the lowest in the industry – the average NPL ratio for 12 other Chinese shareholding banks is 5.01%. But the bank has the same problems with corporate governance that plague almost every Chinese industry. Last year, it admitted that some of its officials had faked a shareholder meeting for convenience’s sake. It has since added three independent directors to oversee issues such as executive salaries.
The bank recently received approval for an IPO in Hong Kong that is expected to raise up to $1bn. It has 17 main branches and reported assets totalled Rmb445.4bn ($53.8m) at end 2004.
