The Agricultural Bank of China Friday said it has no specific time frame for its planned listing, triggering market speculation that the bank may consider the current market conditions too weak to launch an initial public offering.

"The bank has no specific initial public offering plan," the Beijing-based bank said Friday on its Website. "We are now focusing on pushing forward our rural financial services reform."

ABC is the only one among China's big four state-owned banks yet to go public. Its rivals -- the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Bank of China and China Construction Bank -- are all listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The bank has been planning to list for years. It said earlier that it would wrap up its IPO preparations in 2009 but has so far not revealed its listing timetable.

The weak market sentiment may not be a golden time for the bank to consider its listing move, analysts said.

Several IPOs debuted below their offering prices in China recently.

The bank received a US$19 billion government cash injection in November 2008 and restructured into a shareholding company in January last year, paving the way for its listing.

(Shanghai Daily February 13, 2010)