China: The Last of the 'Big Four' Banks Goes Public

The initial public offering for the Agricultural Bank of China will be held July 15 in Shanghai and July 16 in Hong Kong. Though Beijing has sought to stage-manage the IPO, the move carries risks given the state of the global economy and the bank's poor asset quality and record of poor profitability. And though allowing investment might be interpreted as a relaxation of control, China is in fact increasing state power over the financial sector. And this means foreign investment will not be allowed to reform the bank to the point of changing its fundamentally political purpose....