Citigroup Stake In Chinese Bank May Signal Shift
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BEIJING – China’s Guangdong Development Bank has narrowed down potential bidders to take a stake in the local lender to three, with a $2.98 billion bid by a consortium led by Citigroup topping the list, the local-language Caijing magazine reported.
[A successful bid by Citigroup could signal an end to regulatory limits on foreign ownership of financial institutions in China, according to the Wall Street Journal.]
The other two bidding groups included local investment firm China Huawen Enterprises Development Corporation and Societe Generale SA with a $2.91 billion bid, and Ping An Insurance Company with a $2.8 billion bid. The magazine’s report said the final bids were detailed Wednesday by Li Chunhong, the deputy secretary general of the Guangdong provincial government, who is also part of the team working on the local bank’s restructuring.
