Agricultural Bank of China

Headquarters in Beijing, China
Native name	中国农业银行
Company type	Public
Traded as	SSE: 601288 (A ordinary) SSE: 360001 (A preference 1) SSE: 360008 (A preference 2) SEHK: 1288 (H ordinary)
ISIN	CNE100000RJ0 CNE100000Q43
Industry	Financial services
Founded	10 July 1951; 73 years ago (1951-07-10)
Headquarters	Beijing, China
Key people	Zhao Huan (President)
Products	Consumer banking corporate banking investment banking insurance private banking private equity mortgage loans credit cards investment management wealth management asset management mutual funds exchange-traded funds index funds
Revenue	CN¥602.56 billion $153.9 billion (2020)[1][2]
Operating income	CN¥251.67 billion $36,6 billion (2018)[1]
Net income	CN¥202.63 billion $29.5 billion (2018)[1]
Total assets	CN¥22.609 trillion $3.286 trillion (2018)[1]
Total equity	CN¥1.67 trillion $243 billion (2018)[1]
Owner	Central Huijin (40.42%) Ministry of Finance (39.21%) National Social Security Fund (3.02%) China Securities Finance (1.92%)
Number of employees	467,631 (2020)[3]
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	中国农业银行
Traditional Chinese	中國農業銀行
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguó Nóngyè Yínháng
Alternative Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	农行
Traditional Chinese	農行
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Nóngháng
Website	abchina.com/en/

The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), also known as AgBank, is a Chinese state-owned multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Beijing, China. It is one of the "big four" banks in China, and the second largest bank in the world by total assets, behind the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. ABC was founded on 10 July 1951, and has its headquarters in Dongcheng District, Beijing.^[4] It has branches throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, New York, Frankfurt, Sydney, Seoul, and Singapore.

ABC has 320 million retail customers, 2.7 million corporate clients, and nearly 24,000 branches. It is China's third-largest lender by assets. ABC went public in mid-2010, fetching the world's biggest ever initial public offering (IPO) at the time,^[5] since overtaken by the Saudi Arabian state-run petroleum enterprise, Saudi Aramco.^[6] In 2011, it ranked eighth among the Top 1000 World Banks,^[7] by 2015, it ranked third in Forbes' 13th annual Global 2000 list^[8] and in 2017 it ranked fifth.^[9] In 2023, Agricultural Bank of China was ranked #4 in Forbes' Global 2000 (World's Largest Public Companies).^[10] It is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board.

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, ABC has been formed and abolished several times. On 10 July 1951, two banks of the Republic of China, Farmers Bank of China and Cooperation Bank, merged to form the Agricultural Cooperation Bank, which ABC regards as its ancestor. However, the bank was merged into People's Bank of China, the central bank in 1952. The first bank bearing the name Agricultural Bank of China was founded in 1955, but it was merged into the central bank in 1957. In 1963 the Chinese government formed another agricultural bank which was also merged into the central bank two years later. Today's Agricultural Bank of China was founded in February 1979. As the People's Bank of China began spinning off its commercial banking functions after 1978, ABC's focus on providing farmers with financial services increased.^[11]: 225

ABC was restructured to form a holding company called Agricultural Bank of China Limited.^[12] It was listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges in July 2010.^[13]

In 2012, ABC started a project to migrate to the Avaloq Banking System.^[14][15]

The Agricultural Bank of China halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the United States of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.^[16]

In 2023, the asset management division of Agricultural Bank of China ABC WM together with BNP Paribas Asset Management launched an asset management joint venture. BNP Paribas ABC Wealth is majority owned by BNPP AM (51%), ABC Wealth Management holds 49%. Alexandre Werno became the CEO.^[17]

In April 2007, ABC was the victim of the largest bank theft in Chinese history. This occurred when two vault managers at a branch in Handan, Hebei embezzled almost 51 million yuan (US$7.5 million).^[18]

ABC was the last of the "big four" banks in China to go public. In 2010, A shares and H shares of Agricultural Bank of China were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange respectively. Each share was set to cost between 2.7RMB and 3.3RMB per share.^[19] H shares were set to cost between HK$2.88 and HK$3.48 per share.^[20] The final share price for the IPO launch was issued on 7 July 2010. On completion in August 2010 it became the world's biggest initial public offering (IPO) surpassing the one set by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2006 of US$21.9 billion.^[21] This record has since been beaten by another Chinese company, Alibaba, in 2014.^[22]

ABC raised US$19.21 billion in an IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai on 6 July 2010, before overallotment options were exercised.^[23] On 13 August 2010, ABC officially completed the world's largest initial public offering, raising a total of $22.1 billion after both Shanghai and Hong Kong's over-allotments were fully exercised.^[24][25] The IPO was once thought to be able to raise US$30 billion, but weaker market sentiment dampened the value.^[26] Despite a 15-month low for the Chinese benchmark index, the IPO was said to have gone smoothly.^[27]

CICC, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley led the Hong Kong offering, with JPMorgan, Macquarie, Deutsche Bank and ABC's own securities unit also involved. CICC, CITIC Securities, Galaxy and Guotai Junan Securities handled the Shanghai portion. ABC sold about 40% of the Shanghai offering to 27 strategic investors, including China Life Insurance and China State Construction. They were subject to lock-up periods of 12–18 months. Eleven cornerstone investors were selected for its Hong Kong share offering, including Qatar Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority, taking a combined $5.45 billion worth of shares.^[28]

On Aug 01, 2024, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced MOUs worth $50 billion with six Chinese financial institutions, including the Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China.^[29]

• Asset management in China
• Banking in China
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  • List of banks in China
• List of companies of China

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