ICBC becomes world's biggest bank

Banking
24 July 2007

A 2.68% surge in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's (ICBC) Shanghai-listed A-shares on Monday saw the lender overtake Citigroup to become the world's largest bank by market capitalization. ICBC's value stood at US$254 billion to Citigrop's US$251 billion, with HSBC Holdings lying in third place on US$215 billion, Reuters reported. ICBC shares have gained 15% over the past month on the back of a strong performance in the domestic stock market. The bank is trading at 28 times analysts' forecasts for its earnings per share (EPS) in 2007, as opposed to Citigroup's EPS level of 11 times. However, Citigroup's revenues last year, at US$90 billion, were almost four times larger than ICBC's.