HONG KONG, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Thursday said that its ratings on Bank of China Ltd (BOC)(BBB+/Stable/A-2) would not be affected by the bank's global Initial Public Offering (IPO).

    The international rating service said, the impact of the offering on the bank's overall credit profile has already been factored into them.

    The IPO will strengthen BOC's capitalization significantly, raising about 9.8 billion U.S. dollars in equity through the issue of new common shares.

    Although expected strong medium-term growth is likely to reduce the bank's capitalization, Standard & Poor's expects BOC to maintain adequate capitalization to support this projected growth and provide a reasonable cushion against volatility in the quality of its assets, which include a decreasing but still large pool of special mention loans.

    Although the Chinese government's equity interest in BOC will be diluted to about 70.5 percent from 79.9 percent, the IPO support from the government will continue to be an important rating factor, said the rating service.

    Standard & Poor's expects government support to remain strong in view of BOC's role as one of the country's key financial institutions.

    Standard & Poor's is an international provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. Enditem