Bank of China Ltd. (BOC), one of China's four largest State lenders, was considering bringing in fund management companies as strategic investors in the bank, the company's president said Tuesday.

"We are a bit different from China Construction Bank (in selecting local strategic investors). We are considering fund management companies," Li Lihui, Bank of China president said after a joint press conference with China Construction Bank.

"We are talking with them now. We will announce (their names) next year at an appropriate time," Li said.

Bank of China and Construction Bank, which received a total injection of US$45 billion from the government last year, have been restructured into stockholding companies and have both been seeking local and foreign strategic investors ahead of their initial public offerings.

Both bank presidents declined to give any details about their talks with strategic investors or more details about their listings. Both still aim to list next year.

Construction Bank has already selected and announced some of its local strategic investors, mostly major corporations such as China Yangtze Power, Shanghai Baosteel Group and State Power Grid.

The two banks had also been selling off their non-performing loans and working on improving their risk management and internal management, the two bank presidents said.

Li said that at the end of October, Bank of China's capital adequacy ratio was 8.56 percent.

Construction Bank reported a 21.5 percent increase in operating profit to 49.9 billion yuan (US$6.01 billion) in the first nine months, while the bank's bad loan ratio was 3.74 percent at the end of September.

Chang Zhenming, Construction Bank president, said the bank's bad-loan ratio could be even lower by the end of the year.

(Shenzhen Daily-Agencies)