The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), the last of China's big four state lenders to list, may have to reduce its initial public offering (IPO) price amid recent market volatility, according to Friday's China Daily.

The lender is aiming for a price-to-book (P/B) ratio, a widely watched measure of bank valuations, of around 2, which analysts said was "a bit overpriced" given the current poor market conditions.

"The shares may face the risk of falling below the IPO price if the lender goes with the planned P/B ratio because we expect that market sentiment will remain relatively weak in the months ahead," said Chen Xi, an analyst at First Capital Securities.

Chen said that a reasonable P/B ratio for ABC's listing should be between 1.5 and 1.8.

ABC is planning to issue about 50 billion new shares through the dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong in July with an issue price of around 3 yuan (0.44 U.S. dollars) per share, sources close to the matter said earlier.

That will put the total value of the lender's IPO at some 22 billion U.S. dollars, which is expected to be the world's largest IPO.

Analysts said the lender's mega IPO is likely to burden the stock market, which has already been depressed by investor concerns over further credit tightening and uncertain economic prospects.