China regulator to study Agricultural Bank's IPO bid

Lender aims to replenish capital as banks could face losses if debts not repaid.

The state-owned Agricultural Bank of China plans to sell a 15 percent stake in what could become the world's largest initial public offering, China's securities regulators said.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission posted the bank's application online Friday and said it will review it Wednesday.

Agricultural Bank is one of China's top four state-owned commercial lenders and the last of the four to sell shares to the public. The Beijing-based bank is China's main rural lender. The bank's application says its profit rose 26 percent to 65 billion yuan ($9.5 billion) in 2009.

The bank's IPO application says it plans to sell 22.235 billion shares on Shanghai's stock exchange and 25.41 billion shares in Hong Kong. No price range was announced.

The move comes as China's government is concerned that its banks might face problems if they cannot repay multibillion-dollar borrowing.

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