SHANGHAI, April 6 (AP) -- Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China's biggest lender, said Friday that its total assets exceeded US$1 trillion (€750 billion) by the end of March.

The state-controlled bank reported earlier this week that its 2006 net profit rose 31 percent to 49.3 billion yuan (US$6.4 billion;€4.8 billion).

In October, the bank became the first Chinese firm to simultaneously list shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai, raising US$21.9 billion in the world's biggest IPO to date.

Despite its immense size, with more than 400,000 employees, ICBC trails behind global banking giants such as New York-based Citigroup Inc., which had total assets of US$1.88 trillion.

London-based HSBC Holdings PLC reported total assets of US$1.86 trillion at the end of last year, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's largest bank, had assets of about US$1.61 trillion.