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CITIC Bank denies any interest in Bear Stearns

China's state-owned CITIC Bank (中國中信銀行) said yesterday that it is not in any talks to buy into troubled US investment bank Bear Stearns and has no plan for such a stake purchase.

"So far, the company has not held any talks with Bear Stearns or any other related party on a stake purchase, nor does it have any intention or made any agreement," CITIC Bank said in a statement with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

"So far, the company does not have any plan to buy a stake in Bear Stearns and the company promises it will not plan for such an event within at least the next three months," the bank said.

On Tuesday Jiang Dingzhi (蔣定之), vice chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said that "CITIC Bank is considering a bid for Bear Stearns," while a CITIC bank spokesman said he was unaware of the matter.

Bear Stearns, founded in 1923, said earlier this month it was merging two mortgage subsidiaries and eliminating 310 jobs to better deal with market conditions related to the ailing US housing sector.

It has been a major victim of the subprime crisis, which has seen Americans with patchy credit histories default on mortgage loans leading to a rising tide of home foreclosures as prices slump.

CITIC Bank's statement said it had no plans to purchase shares in Bear Stearns within the next three months but gave no indication of what it might do after that.

It was not immediately clear, however, whether the statement was meant as a denial of the regulator's comments.

Phone calls to the press office at CITIC's Beijing headquarters were not immediately answered.

The bank is controlled by Citic Group, the investment arm of China's Cabinet. Citic Group -- short for China International Trust and Investment Corp -- was created in 1979 to nurture the growth of private business.
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