Over a decade-long IPO marathon: Will Hubei Bank or Hankou Bank cross the finish line first?

In the financial landscape of Hubei Province, the first listed bank’s seat remains vacant.

Recently, Hubei Bank issued two announcements that drew market attention. First, it completed a private placement of 7.614 billion yuan, with state-owned shares increasing to over 84%; second, after more than ten years, it publicly disclosed employee compensation, breaking the mystery with an average annual salary of 186,000 yuan. These moves are interpreted by the market as a final push toward an IPO.

Meanwhile, another city commercial bank in the province, Hankou Bank, has updated its IPO guidance report to the 64th session but has yet to submit its prospectus. Who will be the first to cross the finish line in this over-decade-long race to go public?

A Ten-Year IPO Marathon

Hubei Bank’s Full Throttle

On February 10, Hubei Bank announced on its official website that it completed a private placement of 1.8 billion shares, raising 7.614 billion yuan, with registered capital increasing to 9.412 billion yuan. The report shows that among the 53 corporate shareholders, 18 are existing shareholders, and 35 are new state-owned legal entities, with over 96% subscription by state capital. After this capital increase, the combined shareholding of state-owned shares and legal entities is expected to rise from 81.21% at the end of 2023 to over 84% in 2024.

Bo Tong Consulting Chief Analyst Wang Pengbo told Southern Metropolis·Bay Finance that the dense entry of local state-owned capital not only provides direct capital injection but also offers implicit credit backing and regional resource synergy, “which helps stabilize the shareholding structure and capital levels, positively impacting the foundational conditions for IPO.”

In fact, Hubei Bank’s recent “capital replenishment” is also driven by the pressure of its capital adequacy ratio approaching regulatory red lines. As of the end of September 2024, Hubei Bank’s core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio, Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio, and total capital adequacy ratio were 8.03%, 9.82%, and 12.15%, respectively, down 0.68, 0.05, and 0.2 percentage points from the end of 2023, with the core Tier 1 ratio nearing the 7.5% regulatory threshold.

After this capital increase, Hubei Bank’s capital position has improved significantly. By the end of 2025, its capital adequacy ratio is projected to rise to 12.62%, with a core Tier 1 ratio of 8.96%. “But it’s important to note that this alleviation of capital pressure is only temporary,” Wang said. As of the end of 2025, Hubei Bank’s total assets reached 6214.56 billion yuan, an 18.8% increase from the beginning of the year, marking two consecutive years of growth, but rapid asset expansion will continue to consume capital.

Hubei Bank’s announcement screenshot.

While undergoing large-scale “capital replenishment,” on February 24, Hubei Bank disclosed for the first time its salary distribution information, with an average employee annual salary of 186,000 yuan in 2024. The bank also published executive compensation in its annual report.

Hubei Bank’s 2024 annual report screenshot.

In 2024, President Liu Zhanming’s pre-tax total salary was 807,400 yuan; Vice Presidents Zhou Yukun, Wan Lisheng, Yang Ziying, and Li Junxi earned pre-tax salaries of 972,000 yuan, 1.0352 million yuan, 990,900 yuan, and 1.1473 million yuan, respectively.

“For banks preparing to go public, salary transparency is an important part of standardized governance and a core requirement of the capital market,” Wang said. “Hubei Bank’s move undoubtedly adds a positive point to its IPO efforts.”

It is understood that Hubei Bank began preparing for listing as early as 2015 and submitted an IPO application to the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2022. However, so far, its IPO application remains in the “accepted” stage with no further progress.

Capital Pressure and Challenges

Hankou Bank’s Over 15 Years of IPO Guidance

As one of the earliest city commercial banks in Hubei to prepare for listing, Hankou Bank initially held an advantage. According to public reports, in 2010, Hankou Bank introduced Lenovo Holdings as a strategic shareholder, which invested over 1 billion yuan to become the largest shareholder. That same year, it launched IPO guidance with Haitong Securities, and market expectations were high that it would be the first to list on A-shares, becoming Hubei’s first listed bank.

However, over the past decade, its listing process has been prolonged. The China Securities Regulatory Commission’s website shows that as of January 2026, Hankou Bank’s guidance report has been updated to the 64th session, setting the record for the longest guidance period among banks, yet it has still not submitted a prospectus. Industry analysts say the core issues are capital pressure and compliance shortcomings.

Public information shows that by the end of 2023, Hankou Bank’s core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio was only 7.61%, just above the 7.5% regulatory minimum. In 2024, the bank completed a capital increase of 4.586 billion yuan, raising its core Tier 1 ratio to 9.29% in the short term. But by the third quarter of 2025, its three capital adequacy ratios declined again, with the core Tier 1 ratio falling to 8.54%.

Haitong Securities’ guidance report (No. 60) noted that as business develops, the bank’s capital continues to be consumed, and capital adequacy indicators remain under pressure.

Guotai Haitong Securities also pointed out in its latest report that the bank still faces issues such as limited channels for capital replenishment, which are recurring but unresolved “chronic problems.”

Additionally, Hankou Bank has received multiple fines exceeding one million yuan in recent years. For example, in April 2024, it was fined 4.85 million yuan for 14 violations, including inadequate credit management, illegal real estate loans, and failure to implement loan classification procedures. In June 2025, the central bank issued a penalty for serious violations in anti-money laundering operations, citing issues such as “failure to perform customer identity verification” and “transactions with unidentified customers,” resulting in a fine of 1.23 million yuan.

Of particular concern, in December 2023, former Chairman Chen Xinmin was dismissed for “financial misconduct” and “illegal lending.” Additionally, in September 2023, then-Assistant President Xu Xin was permanently banned for “inadequate pre-loan investigation and post-loan management.”

How to Break Through Bottlenecks

Seizing the Listing Opportunity?

Currently, the race for Hubei’s first listed bank has entered a critical stage. Industry experts generally believe that the competition between Hubei Bank and Hankou Bank is fundamentally a comprehensive contest of operational quality, capital strength, and governance level.

For Hubei Bank, to achieve a breakthrough in IPO, it must continue optimizing asset quality, accelerate non-performing asset disposal, and steadily reduce its NPL ratio below the industry average, thereby mitigating risks. Data shows that although Hubei Bank’s NPL ratio slightly decreased from 1.97% in 2022 to 1.95% in 2024, it has remained above the city commercial bank average for three consecutive years, ending 2024 at 0.19 percentage points above the industry average.

As of the third quarter of 2025, Hubei Bank’s non-performing loan balance was 6.499 billion yuan, with an NPL ratio of 1.85%. While the ratio has declined, the absolute amount of non-performing loans continues to rise, indicating that the asset quality still has room for improvement.

Additionally, Hubei Bank needs to balance scale expansion with capital consumption. Reports indicate that the bank has set a strategic goal of surpassing 1 trillion yuan in assets by 2027, a vision reaffirmed publicly by Party Secretary Zhao Hongbing. Industry insiders say this means maintaining an average annual growth rate of about 20% over the next two years, which will exert ongoing pressure on capital.

For Hankou Bank, the difficulty of listing is even greater. The primary task is to break the “stall” in the guidance period: accelerate governance standardization, address shortcomings in information disclosure and internal controls; increase capital replenishment efforts to ease capital pressure; optimize asset structure; and improve profitability. Only by solving these core issues can it submit a prospectus smoothly.

From an industry perspective, small and medium-sized banks face common challenges in IPOs. Data shows that since Lanzhou Bank’s successful listing in January 2022, A-share bank IPOs have been “paused” for four consecutive years.

Industry experts believe that whether it is Hubei Bank, which has already filed, or Hankou Bank, still in guidance, they need to overcome industry-wide difficulties to stand out. This over-ten-year race to go public is not just about speed but also about operational quality and risk management strength.

Report by: Southern Metropolis·Bay Finance Reporter Guan Yuhui