Tag Archives: Pudong Development Bank

RETAIL: Shanghai Wins Big With Wanda Group Relocation

Wanda to relocate HQ to Shanghai

Shanghai may be famous for its entrepreneurial spirit, but its track record isn’t quite so stellar when it comes to nurturing top entrepreneurs. That could be starting to change, however, with word that Dalian Wanda Group, one of China’s most dynamic companies, plans to move its headquarters to Shanghai from its current location in Beijing.

As a longtime foreigner living in Shanghai, I’ve always been surprised by the relatively small number of major private companies for a city of our size. We should certainly be proud of some of our city’s most outstanding entrepreneurs, with names like Guo Guangchang of Fosun Group and Spring Airlines (Shenzhen: 601021) Chairman Wang Zhenghua as 2 outstanding examples. Read Full Post…

SPD Bank Leads Shanghai Financial Consolidation

SPD Bank to buy Shanghai Trust

I don’t follow China’s domestic banks too closely, largely because all are controlled by the government and their actions are more often directed by policy initiatives than real commercial factors. But the latest moves surrounding SPD Bank (Shanghai: 60000), also known as Pudong Development Bank, indicate that this relatively young financial firm could be a player to watch as China moves ahead with a major overhaul of its stodgy financial sector. Just last week SPD made minor headlines with its purchase of a small asset manager, and now it’s back in the headlines with word that it will merge with Shanghai Trust, one of the city’s largest trust companies. Read Full Post…

News Digest: March 18, 2014

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 18. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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  • Pudong Development Bank (Shanghai: 600000) To Acquire Shanghai Trust (Chinese article)
  • Central Bank Releases Third-party Payment Draft Regulations (English article)
  • Alibaba to Invest in Sinopec’s (HKEx: 386) Sales Subsidiary – Sources (English article)
  • As Giant US IPO Nears, Alibaba’s China E-commerce Crown Slips (English article)
  • Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) Enters Into Agreement For Privatization (PRNewswire)
  • Latest calendar for Q4 earnings reports (Earnings calendar)

Goldman’s ICBC Sale: Good For China Banks

Temasek boosts ICBC stake

Investors are still pondering Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE: GS) sale this week of its remaining stake in Chinese banking giant ICBC (HKEx: 1398; NYSE: 601398), trying to figure out if the move is a positive or negative for China’s wobbly banking sector. My view is that the move is indeed positive, which is being supported by the latest word that a big portion of Goldman’s stake was purchased by Temasek, the massive Singaporean sovereign wealth fund.  Read Full Post…

HSBC Continues China Banking Divorce

HSBC likely to dump Bank of Shanghai stake

A new media report says global banking giant HSBC (HKEx: 5; London: HSBA) is likely to sell-off more of its Chinese assets, continuing an ongoing divorce by top global lenders tired of slow progress in the complex China market. This latest report doesn’t have any specific insider knowledge of a looming sale, but rather quotes analysts saying such a move is likely. (English article) Still, such disposals seem both likely and logical, following HSBC’s sale last year of its 15.6 percent holdings in Ping An Insurance (HKEx: 2318; Shanghai: 601318) after years of inability to get any strategic returns out of the tie-up. Read Full Post…

Fubon Banks on Cross-Strait Thaw 富邦金控收购华一银行80%股权

The ongoing thaw in relations between China and Taiwan has helped increase trust between the former pair of Cold War adversaries, but hopes for a boom in cross-strait M&A have yet to materialize as lingering suspicions remain. That reality is on display once again this week, with the announcement by Fubon (Taipei: 2881), one of Taiwan’s leading banks, that it has reached an agreement to buy 80 percent of a mid-sized Chinese bank called First Sino Bank for about $900 million. (English article)

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Citi Heats Up China Credit Cards 花旗将引爆中国信用卡市场

China’s credit card market could be heading for a major explosion soon, following the official entry of the first foreign card issuer to the market in the form of global banking giant Citibank (NYSE: C). Foreign media have given relatively little coverage to this event, but in my view the development is quite significant for reasons that I’ll explain shortly that could ultimately lead to the kind of consumer credit bust that previously wreaked havoc on the banking sectors in Taiwan and South Korea.

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News Digest: August 17, 2012 报摘: 2012年8月17日

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on August 17. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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  • Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) Announces Q2 Results (PRNewswire)
  • Unicom (HKEx: 762), China Telecom (HKEx: 728) May Sever Xiaomi Ties – Sources (English article)
  • Silicon Valley Bank, Pudong Development Bank (Shanghai: 600000) JV Opens (Chinese article)
  • Toys“R”Us Continues China Expansion with Opening of First Stores in Beijing (Businesswire)

Banks: Citi Grows, ICBC Tries Dim Sum 花旗推积极扩张计划 工行首发点心债

Beijing’s new openness to global banks is leading a growing number of foreign lenders to test the China market, with US giant Citigroup (NYSE: C) becoming the latest to announce an aggressive expansion plan to tap the new open atmosphere. At the same time, China’s own banks are continuing their own global expansion by offering a wider array of yuan-denominated services to foreign investors, with leading bank ICBC (HKEx: 1398; Shanghai: 601398) making its first major offering of so-called dim sum bonds in Hong Kong. The 2 trends are both part of China’s efforts to build a world-class financial services industry as it tries to wean its banks from their history of policy-based lending to big state-owned enterprises and make them more commercially driven.

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Silcon Valley Bank Forges Into China 美国矽谷银行与浦发成立合资银行

I’ve previously written about a low-key second wave of financial service companies quietly coming into China after a pull-back of earlier arriving big names like Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Citigroup (NYSE: C), with US tech-focused lender Silicon Valley Bank the latest name to join this trend. What’s equally interesting in this latest news is the rapid speed with which the government has approved the joint venture between Silicon Valley Bank and Shanghai-based Pudong Development Bank (Shanghai: 600000), indicating Beijing may be keen to bring in more foreign expertise from these smaller names as it looks to build up a viable private sector banking industry that operates outside the traditional realm of big state-owned lenders. Let’s look at the latest reports, which have an executive from California-based Silicon Valley Bank saying he was surprised at the rapid speed with which his bank’s joint venture was approved following its announcement last October, and that new joint venture bank will aims to open by September. (English article) Silicon Valley Bank’s pairing comes just months after Citibank sold a 3 percent stake it had held in Pudong Development Bank for several years, mirroring a recent trend that has seen many major western banks sell off investments they made nearly a decade ago in Chinese lenders. (previous post) While the western lenders made many of those sales to raise cash to bolster their shaky balance sheets, observers also noted that many were disappointed that their investments never led to strategic partnerships to help them tap the fast-growing China market for financial services. This new tie-up between Silicon Valley Bank and Pudong Development Bank looks like a clearly focused initiative to help service the growing semiconductor chip sector, anchored by leading chip maker SMIC (HKEx: 981; NYSE: SMI), and a growing field of LCD and LED makers emerging in the Yangtze River delta area. Whereas many of the earlier tie-ups between the big western banks and their Chinese counterparts contained lofty dreams that were never really realized, this more recent round of new initiatives by smaller players looks much more targeted and modest in its ambitions, seeing foreign companies pair with smaller local players in highly-focused moves with specific aims. As such, I would give them a much better chance for success than the previous tie-ups. Other recent lower-profile tie-ups in the financial services sector have included moves by money transferring specialist MoneyGram (NYSE: MGI), which recently expanded its tie-up with Bank of China (HKEx: 3988; Shanghai: 601988); and American Express, which has invested in an electronic payments firm called Lianlain. (previous post) Beijing is probably quietly encouraging these kinds of tie-ups to more rapidly propel its financial services sector to world-class status, especially as it faces its own internal banking crisis that is largely the result of older practices still seen at many banks that behave more like policy-based institutions than true market-oriented lenders. Accordingly, look for a growing number of these kinds of new tie-ups involving mid-tier western players in the months ahead.

Bottom line: The rapid approval of Silicon Valley’s new joint venture bank indicates Beijing wants to bring in more niche-oriented foreign firms to bolster its financial services sector.

Related postings 相关文章:

AmEx Chases E-Payments With Lianlian Link 美国运通联手中国连连集团

MoneyGram In Latest Financial Services Move 速汇金携手中行 提供汇款服务

Goldman Flees ICBC as Bank Crisis Looms 中国银行业危机隐现 高盛迅速转让工行股票

Bank of China Results: Downturn Ahead 中行业绩黯淡 或预示银行业将迎来低迷期

Bank of China (HKEx: 3988; Shanghai: 601398) made news earlier this week when it became China’s first member at the prestigious London Metals Exchange (English article), but its latest headlines are far less positive as it reported lackluster growth in the first quarter that was below market expectations. (earnings announcement; English article) The 10 percent profit growth for the quarter was less than half the 28 percent growth rate from a year earlier, when Bank of China and its peers were reaping big new profits after a lending binge ordered by Beijing to stimulate the domestic economy during the global economic crisis. With the economy now showing signs of slowing sharply as the government tries to cool the real estate market and tame inflation, many fear that Chinese banks could start to see many of the loans they made during that binge start to sour. Recent weakness in the stock market, following a rally early in the year, could add to the problems, as many recent bank loans have gone to fund stock buying. From a purely numerical perspective, Bank of China’s 10 percent profit rise doesn’t look too bad, since that kind of growth rate is certainly respectable. But more worrisome is growth rate’s slowing, which is likely to accelerate in the next 2 quarters and could even turn negative by the end of the year. Bank of China is one of the nation’s top 4 lenders, and first-quarter results will come out later today from the other 3, ICBC (HKEx: 1398; Shanghai: 601398), China Construction Bank (HKEx: 939; Shanghai: 601939) and Agricultural Bank of China (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 601288). I would expect all 3 of the other big lenders to report slowing profit growth as well, signalling a recent rally for their stocks could soon be finished. Most of China’s major bank stocks performed poorly for most of last year on concerns that they would soon face a flood of bad loans after the lending binge of 2009 and 2010. But most have bounced back since then as Beijing took steps to address the problem, including allowing many lenders to raise billions of dollars in new capital to strengthen their balance sheets. Bank of China’s own shares have risen nearly 50 percent since hitting a low early last October. Perhaps sensing that the rally may soon be over, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) became the latest major shareholder in a Chinese bank to sell down its stake earlier this month, dumping more of its stock in ICBC. (previous post) Goldman joined Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C), which last year also sold off large stakes in China Construction Bank and Pudong Development Bank (Shanghai: 600000), respectively, partly due to concerns about a looming Chinese banking crisis. Following this lackluster Bank of China earnings report, investors will be watching closely to see if the other 3 banks also report weak earnings, and also if any are showing signs of growing bad loans. If the reports are weak, which seems likely, look for a sell-off in Chinese banking shares next week, which could mark the beginning of a long downturn for the sector.

Bottom line: Bank of China’s lackluster first-quarter report could mark the beginning of a long downturn for Chinese lenders and their stocks.

Related postings 相关文章:

Goldman Flees ICBC as Bank Crisis Looms 中国银行业危机隐现 高盛迅速转让工行股票

UnionPay Stirs IPO Pot With Big Numbers 银联有望上市

AgBank Results: First Look at Banking Winter 中国农业银行财报:银行业的冬天