Standard Chartered Plc, which makes two-thirds its profit in Asia, plans to make an acquisition in China to help it expand faster to compete for a slice of that nation's US$1.4 trillion in household savings.
The UK-based lender, which is also traded in Hong Kong, is in talks with many banks in China, said Peter Wong, Standard Chartered's Hong Kong chief executive officer.
Wong declined to give a time-table for an acquisition.
"China is too big," said Wong at a press briefing. "With that landscape and such diversity in terms of cities and wealth of the nation, we would like to have a much better way than just organic growth. It will be very difficult."
HSBC Holdings Plc, Citigroup Inc and global rivals are expanding in China, the fastest-growing among the world's 20 biggest economies, where more people are buying insurance and taking loans to purchase homes and cars.
Overseas banks will be able to lend and accept yuan deposits from domestic customers at the end of 2006, when China fulfils a pledge when it joined the World Trade Organization in December 2001.
HSBC, Europe's biggest bank by market value, last week said it is paying 14.46 billion yuan (US$1.75 billion) for a 19.9 percent stake in the Bank of Communications (
Citigroup, the world's largest financial services company, bought an 8.3 percent stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co (
Standard Chartered is in talks to buy a stake in China Everbright Bank, the nation's eighth largest lender, which is controlled by China's Cabinet, according to media reports. Wong declined to comment on that.
Standard Chartered opened its first branch in China in 1858 and now has seven branches there besides its Hong Kong offices. HSBC plans to open its tenth branch later this year.
Opening branches at the currently allowed pace of one a year would take foreign banks too long to catch up with local lenders, analysts said. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China has 25,960 branches countrywide and Agricultural Bank of China, the smallest of the big four state banks, has 50,000 outlets.
Starting in September, the one-branch-a-year rule will be relaxed to allow multiple openings in a 12-month period, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said last week.
"If you look at competition that we are facing inside China, most of the four state-owned banks have at least 15,000 branches, and have national licenses -- we don't," Wong said. "They have the customer base, we don't. To build a customer base will take a long time."
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors