BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Bad loans at the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), the last major state-owned commercial bank still to list on the stock market, dropped by 2.68 percentage points to 23.49 percent of the loan portfolio in the first three quarters of the year, the bank said.

    ABC said in its third quarter report that it had eliminated 7.82 billion yuan (99 million U.S. dollars) of outstanding bad loans in the first nine months.

    A high bad loan ratio is a major obstacle to ABC's ambition to transform itself from a state-owned bank to a joint stock company listed on the stock market.

    The three other "Big Four" state-owned commercial banks -- the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the Bank of China (BOC) and the China Construction Bank (CCB) -- have already listed on domestic or overseas bourses.

    A report released last Monday by the central bank says ABC's assets are being audited and a restructuring plan is being worked out.

    The bank posted profit of almost 43 billion yuan for the January to September period, up 35 percent year on year.

    Its deposits increased by 530 billion yuan in the same period, an increase of 63 billion yuan on the same period of 2005, the bank said.