Standard Bank Group Ltd, Africa's largest lender, announced
yesterday that it would sell a 20 percent stake to Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) for 36.7 billion rand ($5.46
billion) in what is China's largest overseas investment.
More than 95 percent of Standard Bank's shareholders voted in
favor of the deal, said a Bloomberg report, citing lawyer
Vincent Maleka and chairman Derek Cooper, who chaired the
shareholders' meeting in Johannesburg yesterday.
ICBC and Standard Bank agreed earlier that the former would take
10 percent of the new shares issued by the latter, and buy another
10 percent from shareholders.
"We are very glad with the result," Wang Zhenning, spokesman for
ICBC, told China Daily yesterday, adding that the bank's
shareholders will vote on the deal on December 13. He declined to
elaborate.
ICBC, the world's largest bank by market value, is paying 120.29
rand ($18.27) per share in cash, 14 percent more than Standard
Bank's share price on October 22, the day before the company said
it was in talks.
The sale is expected to fund expansion in South Africa for
Standard Bank, which owns 951 branches in 18 African countries and
over 100 outside the continent.
It will also help develop ICBC's overseas business, which is
eventually targeted to rise to 10 percent from the current 3
percent, especially in emerging markets, Chairman Jiang Jianqing
told a media conference in October.
Jiang said that the partnership with Standard Bank will help
ICBC develop a comprehensive business model besides retail banking
as more than half of Standard Bank's profits come from non-interest
income.
"We believe Standard Bank is an ideal partner for us," Jiang
said. "On the one hand, trade between the two countries is booming,
which will bring greater business for us, and on the other, the
bank itself is a market leader in Africa and will bring us
financial benefits."
Trade between China and the African continent swelled 40 percent
last year to $55.5 billion, making China Africa's third largest
trading partner.
(China Daily December 4, 2007)
