From the Financial Times via Mindful Money:
The chairman of the China Construction Bank says he is on the
hunt for a European bank to boost the group's overseas portfolio. He
has nearly $16bn to spend and claims to be in the process of ‘looking
for the right choice'.
The prevailing view in Europe remains that the banks
have, as yet, unquantified and possibly unquantifiable problems. Does
this interest from abroad suggest that Eurozone investors are misreading
the situation?
The China Construction Bank is the second
largest Chinese bank by assets (after the Industrial and Commercial Bank
of China). To date, it has forged deals in South America, North America
and Southeast Asia, but none in Europe. Wang Hongzhang says that the group is now ready to deal:
"Some of the banks in Europe have been put up for sale," Mr Wang told the Financial Times
in an interview. "Now we are looking for the right choice." He said CCB
had Rmb100bn ($15.8bn) of capital available to acquire a whole bank or,
at a minimum, to buy a stake of 30-50 per cent in a larger entity."
