Huaxia Bank, Deutsche Bank and Sal Oppenheim jointly announced on Monday in Beijing that a consortium made up of Deutsche Bank and Sal Oppenheim will buy a total of 587.2 million shares from the 18 shareholders, including Shougang Group and Shandong Electric Power Corporation, of Huaxia Bank for 2.6 billion yuan or 329 million US dollars. This amounts to a 13.98 per cent stake of the Beijing-based joint stock bank. A transfer agreement was also signed on the same day, subject to regulatory approval, according to the International Finance News on October 18.

Huaxia Bank and Deutsche Bank also signed strategic cooperation documents including the comprehensive technical support and assistance agreement, credit-card business cooperation agreement, and overall long-term strategic cooperation memorandum. Both sides will cooperate in the areas of credit cards, wealth management, financial business services for medium and small enterprises, and the research and development of financial products. Deutsche Bank will also be granted one seat on Huaxia's board.

Huaxia Bank said after the sales of the above-mentioned shares, Huaxia Bank will keep the share-holding position of the Chinese side. For the moment, the three foreign investors have not exceeded the shareholding proportion of 11.9 per cent shareholdings of the Shougang Group, the biggest shareholder of Huaxia bank.

"Deutsche Bank has rich knowledge and specialty in commercial bank businesses, including risk management. The cooperation between Huaxia Bank and Deutsche Bank will deliver exciting opportunities for their common development and realize mutual benefits, said Liu Haiyan, chairman of Huaxia Bank.

Rainer Neske, a member of the group executive committee of Deutsche Bank, said, "This investment will enable us to participate directly in the development of China's retail financial services sector. There is a significant opportunity to bring our global retail and financial product expertise into this exciting market

By People's Daily Online