THE Agricultural Bank of China has received a bailout of 130 billion yuan (US$19 billion) to pave the way for its listing, Pan Gongsheng, vice president of the bank, said yesterday.

Central Huijin, an arm of China's sovereign wealth fund, and the Ministry of Finance will each hold 50 percent in the Beijing-based bank. The lender will complete preparation for its initial public offering in the second half of next year, Pan said.

Qiu Zhicheng, a Haitong Securities Co analyst, said ABC may be listed within one to two years. "The question is no one knows how the market conditions will be then," he pointed out.

ABC will focus on the rural areas as part of a strategy to differentiate itself from rivals. It plans to launch more innovative products to serve the rural areas, including small-sum loans and bank cards tailored for farmers.

The bank has lent 571.3 billion yuan in the first three quarters, or 40 percent of its newly issued loans in the period, to farmers and rural businesses, it said yesterday. Its profit, before allocating provisions, soared to 98 billion yuan at the end of September from 96.1 billion yuan at the end of 2007. ABC operates 31,000 branches nationwide.

ABC, which was set up in 1979 to serve the country's 800 million farmers, is the last of the country's big four state-owned banks to embark on a restructuring plan. Its counterparts - the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Bank of China and China Construction Bank - have all gone public after receiving a combined US$60-billion government bailout to shed their non-performing loans. The three biggest have raised US$53 billion selling shares in the past two years.

But the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has since lost about two-thirds from its peak of 6,124 points in October last year.