China's Bohai Fund to buy 10% of Chengdu Bank
Posted:2007-11-16|Source:internet|No. of Views:
China's Bohai Industrial Investment Fund, a government-backed investment vehicle, plans to buy about a 10% stake in a domestic city bank as it aims to expand into financial sectors, sources close to the situation said on Thursday.
Bohai Fund, which was launched in 2006 with a 20 billion renminbi budget for domestic equity and infrastructure investments, had agreed to pay about RMB1 billion for 10% of Chengdu City Commercial Bank, the sources said.
Ma Jun, a managing director for Bohai Industrial Investment Fund Management Co, which manages the fund, told Reuters that the fund plans to invest in Chengdu Bank, but added that no agreement had been signed yet.
He declined to elaborate, and officials at Chengdu Bank declined to comment on the situation.
But the sources, who declined to be idenfitied, told Reuters that Bohai Fund had applied to Chinese banking regulators to seek approval for the Chengdu deal.
If successful, it would become the Bohai Fund's first banking investment, while the sources said Bohai Fund may seek more similar investments in Chinese banking sectors in the near future.
Bohai Fund's investors include China Life Insurance Co Ltd, the country's top life insurer, and China Development Bank, one of the country's three policy lenders.
Last month, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, Malaysia's sixth largest bank by assets, announced it had agreed to buy 20% of Chengdu Bank, one of China's 100-odd small city lenders for roughly US$260 million.
