China ICBC chief says unaware of China Mobile buy-in

BEIJING, July 4 (Reuters) - The President of China's biggest commercial bank, ICBC (1398.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), said on Saturday he had not heard of proposals for China Mobile (0941.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) to buy into the bank.

China's state asset watchdog has been encouraging China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile phone carrier by users, to buy shares in the bank, the China Daily reported on Friday, quoting an unnamed source. (See [ID:nPEK284073])

But ICBC President Yang Kai told reporters at a meeting in Beijing: "I haven't heard this thing about China Mobile taking shares in ICBC."

The investment would be made by the parent company of Hong Kong-listed China Mobile, the paper had said.

Officials at China Mobile and its parent said they were not aware of the request to buy shares in ICBC, the world's largest bank by market value.

China's State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission, which oversees 138 of the country's biggest non-bank state-owned enterprises, is encouraging them to combine their industrial capital with financial capital, the paper said.

China Mobile had 182.5 billion yuan ($26.71 billion) in net cash at the end of 2008. (Reporting by Xie Heng; Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Alex Richardson)