ICBC 1398

[iam802]

Allianz, American Express Sold ICBC Shares for $1.9 Billion

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home

April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Allianz SE and American Express Co. sold a combined $1.9 billion of shares in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s largest lender by market value, as a lockup on their stakes ended.

Allianz sold 3.216 billion Hong Kong-listed shares, or half of its stake, while American Express sold 638 million shares, Beijing-based ICBC said in e-mailed statements. The sales, to private investors, were made at HK$3.86 apiece, a 4 percent discount to yesterday’s closing price, according to a document sent to investors.

U.S. and European banks have sold $7.9 billion of shares in China’s lenders this year, including the Allianz and American Express sales, as they seek to bolster capital eroded by the global financial crisis. ICBC shares rose as much as 8 percent in Hong Kong trading.

“This is good news to a large extent as it removes the overhang on the shares,” said Sheng Nan, a Shanghai-based analyst at UOB Kayhian Investment Co. “The fact that they can close a deal with investors so fast implies that there’s strong demand and confidence for Chinese banking shares.”

Shares of ICBC, the world’s third most valuable company, fell 1.5 percent this year to yesterday in Hong Kong on anticipation of a potential sale by investors, making it the second-worst performer among the nation’s six publicly traded lenders in that market. ICBC’s Hong Kong shares rose 2.7 percent at 11:18 a.m. to HK$4.13, giving investors an instant profit of $134 million on paper.

Goldman Stake

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. last month agreed to keep 80 percent of its almost 16.5 billion shares for at least another year, easing concerns about added supply of stock. Goldman managed the Allianz and American Express share sales.

ICBC said yesterday first-quarter profit increased 6.2 percent to 35.15 billion yuan ($5.15 billion) on record credit growth and lower provisions for non-performing loans. Chairman Jiang Jianqing, who has more than doubled ICBC’s profit during the past three years, seized on China’s stimulus package to dole out loans for construction projects.

ICBC boosted lending by a record 636.4 billion yuan in the first quarter, an amount greater than the annual gross domestic product of Vietnam, as it tried to help the government stem an economic slide. China’s economy grew 6.1 percent in the first three months, the weakest in almost a decade.

Profitable Bank

American and European banks are paring holdings in Chinese banks at the end of a three-year lockup on their investments, and after a 32 percent gain this year in the nation’s Shanghai Composite Index.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. and UBS AG sold their stakes in Bank of China Ltd. in January after lockup agreements expired. Bank of America Corp. reduced its stake in China Construction Bank Corp., raising funds to repair balance sheets savaged by writedowns on toxic securities.

ICBC became the world’s most profitable bank after earning a record $16.2 billion last year as a focus on domestic lending shielded it from the global credit crunch that started with U.S. subprime-mortgage defaults.

After a government bailout three years ago, ICBC, part- owned by Goldman Sachs, Allianz and American Express, is now the world’s biggest bank with a market value of $190 billion. It has about 17,000 branches nationwide and 170 million personal customers, more than the population of Russia.

The remainder of Allianz’s and American Express’s shares will be unlocked on Oct. 20.

[winston]

Goldman Sachs to keep ICBC stake until next April

US investment giant Goldman Sachs will keep most of its stake in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China at least through April next year.

New York-based Goldman Sachs, which holds a stake of 4.93 percent in the world's biggest bank by market value, said in a statement it will keep at least 80 percent of its ICBC stake through April 28, 2010.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Goldman Sachs selling up to $1.9 billion in ICBC shares

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs (GS.N) was on Monday selling up to about $1.9 billion worth of shares in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (1398.HK)(601398.SS) at a discount of 4 percent to 6 percent to the Chinese lender's Monday closing price, according to a term sheet.

The shares represent nearly 20 percent of Goldman's 4.93 percent stake in the Chinese bank, which is the world's biggest lender by market value.

Goldman pledged earlier this year to keep 80 percent of its ICBC stake until April 2010. Under an earlier lockup agreement, Goldman would have been permitted to sell half of its stake in the state-controlled bank this past April and the rest in October.

The Wall Street bank was selling 3.03 billion shares at HK$4.80-HK$4.90 each, the term sheet said. ICBC's Hong Kong shares rose 4.7 percent to close at HK$5.11 each on Monday.

Goldman Sachs, which was managing the sale, declined to comment.

ICBC's Hong Kong-listed shares have jumped nearly 43 percent since Goldman announced plans to extend its investment in the bank, which was also the day ICBC posted flat fourth-quarter profits.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index .HSI has risen nearly 39 percent over the same period, including a 3.95 percent surge on Monday.

Battered western banks including Bank of America (BAC.N), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and UBS (UBS.N)(UBSN.VX) have sold stakes in big Chinese banks in recent months in order to raise capital.

[winston]

ICBC Profit Surpasses Estimates on Record Credit (Update1)

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s largest by market value, posted higher- than-estimated second-quarter profit on record credit growth and lower provisions for bad loans as the economy rebounded.

Net income was little changed at 31.3 billion yuan ($4.6 billion), based on figures released by the bank today. The surge in lending helped the Beijing-based company beat the 30.7 billion yuan average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, even as margins contracted.

Chairman Jiang Jianqing, 56, who has more than doubled ICBC’s profit in the past three years, doled out 865 billion yuan in new credit in the first half, almost equivalent to the annual gross domestic product of New Zealand.

“What concerns us most is that the direction of monetary policy remains murky and the operating environment may become tougher for banks.” said Wang Yihuan, a fund manager at Beijing-based China Asset Management Co.,

After a government bailout four years ago, ICBC is now the world’s biggest bank by market value and profit. It has more than 16,000 outlets nationwide, 112 branches overseas, and 190 million individual customers, equivalent to the combined populations of Japan and France.

Lending Boost

ICBC expanded lending by 19 percent in the first half from the end of last year and set aside 9.2 billion yuan against potential loan delinquencies, compared with 13.6 billion yuan a year earlier. Bad loans decreased to 98.7 billion yuan by June, accounting for 1.81 percent of total advances, down from 1.97 percent in March.

“The market has already expected relatively solid results from ICBC, which makes it difficult to be a positive catalyst for shares,” Credit Suisse Group AG analysts Sherry Lin and Daisy Wu wrote in a report on Aug. 14.

The state-run bank’s net interest income, or revenue from lending minus interest paid on deposits, dropped 12 percent to 116 billion yuan in the first half as the profit margin on loans narrowed to 2.25 percent.

Net fee and commission income from products and services such as credit cards, wealth management and insurance sales rose 13 percent to 27.7 billion yuan in the first half.

U.S. Writedowns

Writedowns on U.S. subprime-related securities, Alt-A residential mortgage-backed securities and structured investment vehicles totaled $1.62 billion as of June 30, ICBC said today. The bank also marked down the value of debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by $136 million by the end of June.

ICBC, which raised $22 billion in the world’s biggest initial public offering in October 2006, sold 40 billion yuan of subordinated bonds last month after loans and overseas acquisitions drained capital.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... mZhJ2syJR0

[winston]

JPMorgan cuts stake in ICBC to 4.98%

Aug. 26, 2009 (China Knowledge) - U.S.-based financial holding company JPMorgan Chase & Co recently reduced its shareholding in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China<601398><1398> to 4.98% from the previous 5.2%, according to the bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing<0388>.

Information from HKEx showed that JPMorgan on Aug. 18 sold 179 million H shares of ICBC, the world's largest lender by market value, for HK$948 million. The average share price of the transaction was HK$5.29 apiece.

ICBC on Thursday reported its net profit hit RMB 66.42 billion for the first half of this year, representing an increase of 2.9% in the same period of last year, according to an earlier report from China Knowledge.

A shares of ICBC slid 2.89% to end at RMB 4.7 yesterday, while the bank's H shares fell 0.38% to close at HK$5.27.

[winston]

Not vested. From Dr. Check, The Standard HK:-

Dr Check likes quality shares based on the fundamentals. But the timing depends on luck.

Mainland bank ICBC (1398) deserves some attention at this time. CLSA says Chinese banks are the best in the world based on capital adequacy ratio.

ICBC has more than its required tier 1 capital. The excess capital is equal to 28 percent of its market capital.

The biggest mainland bank will release its third-quarter earnings later this month. It made a record 110 billion yuan (HK$124.87 billion) net profit last year.

For the six months ended in June, its net profit was 66 billion yuan. Brokers like the bank's long-term loan growth and higher commission income. Both UBS and DBS set a target price of HK$6.70. The stock has had a mild correction from its September high of HK$6.37, closing yesterday at HK$5.89. It is not too late to take a second look.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... 91007&fc=4

[winston]

ICBC earnings advance 19pc by Katherine Ng, The Standard HK

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (1398) - the world's largest lender by value - said loan growth lifted its third-quarter earnings by 19.1 percent from a year ago to 33.59 billion yuan (HK$38.12 billion), beating analysts' forecast.

Total loans in the first nine months amounted to 5.58 trillion yuan, 22 percent higher than for the same period last year, but lending slowed down in July to September because of government policy, chairman Jiang Jianqing said.

The loans helped boost total net profit for the first three quarters to more than 100 billion yuan, up 7.14 percent from a year ago.

ICBC's lending for July to September grew only 2.6 percent, compared to 19 percent in the first half, data showed.

ICBC - whose strategic investors are Goldman Sachs, Allianz Group and American Express - said it recorded robust third-quarter net fee income, which rose 31.8 percent to 13.32 billion yuan.

But net interest income for the first nine months was down 9.42 percent to 178.2 billion yuan.

The Beijing-based bank also said its financial investments have returned to profitability with 3.158 billion yuan in net gains.

Last year it recorded a net loss of 359 million yuan.

Net gains for the nine months to September totaled 6.5 billion yuan compared with a net loss of of 1.23 billion yuan a year ago.

Looking ahead, ICBC said that, after declining for most of the year, its net interest margins began stabilizing in the second quarter and are expected to rise in the final quarter and next year.

In past months, its non- performing loans and NPL ratio both decreased, by 10 percent to 93.5 billion yuan and by 61 basis points to 1.68 percent, respectively, the bank said.

But despite better-than- expected results of mainland banks, financial stocks in Shanghai have come under pressure.

The is due to the China Banking Regulatory Commission warning commercial banks for the second time in two days about lending risks.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... 91030&fc=8

[winston]

Not vested

Chinese bank ICBC signs deal to enter US market

Chinese bank ICBC, the world's largest by market value, has signed an deal that will allow it to enter the US retail banking market, the Wall Street Journal reported.

ICBC, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, has agreed to buy a majority stake in the US subsidiary of Bank of East Asia in a deal that would make it the first Chinese state-controlled bank to acquire retail bank branches in the United States, the paper said in its Saturday edition.

The deal, which still requires the approval of US regulators, was signed Friday in Chicago on the last day of a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to the United States.

The price was not revealed but anonymous sources quoted by the Journal said it was around $100 million.

The agreement comes as Beijing and Washington seek to increase trade and investment, signing $45 billion in trade deals during Hu's visit.

ICBC has been the most aggressive of China's "big four" banks in expanding overseas, as the country's lenders restart plans that were put on hold by the global financial crisis and seize new opportunities left in its wake.

Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia has 13 branches in the United States, in New York and California. ICBC in January last year bought a 70-percent stake in the bank's Canadian subsidiary.

The new deal would allow ICBC's US customers to buy and sell the yuan. Trading in the currency is already available to clients of the Bank of China, currently the only mainland Chinese bank which has a US retail licence, the newspaper said.

China is seeking to promote the use of the yuan as an international currency for trade and investment.

The yuan's exchange rate, determined daily by the Chinese central bank, is currently held in a narrow band against the dollar.

ICBC this week opened branches in Paris and Brussels and in January inaugurated a total of five branches in Europe, expanding its presence on the continent.

ICBC's profit rose nearly 27 percent in the third quarter to 42.6 billion yuan ($6.38 billion), according to a statement filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange in late October.

Source: AFP Global Edition

[winston]

Hong Kong convicts ex-ICBC executive for bribery

A former senior executive of Chinese banking giant ICBC has been found guilty of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars, bottles of wine and a watch as bribes, Hong Kong's anti-graft watchdog said.

Chan Yick-yiu, former head of real estate and finance of the bank's Hong Kong unit, was convicted over the handling of loan applications, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said in a statement late Saturday.

The 44-year-old was found guilty by a district court Saturday over nine counts of charges including accepting cash of HK$2.5 million ($321,000), five bottles of red wine and a luxury watch from a businessman.

The ICAC said the judge ruled that the prosecution had "proved beyond reasonable doubt" on all charges against Chan, accused of helping the businessman and his firms to prepare credit proposals for loan applications.

The former banker will be sentenced on Tuesday.

ICBC, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, is the world's largest bank by market value. Its Hong Kong unit is known as ICBC (Asia).

Chan was among six people arrested last year as part of a corruption probe related to the loan scandal, alongside the businessman and Derick Chan, corporate banking department head of ICBC (Asia).

Derick, who is not related to Yick-yiu, pleaded guilty earlier to two counts of accepting bribes amounting to HK$3.3 million to assist the businessman in extending repayment period of loans. He will be sentenced on August 19.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/25 ... or-bribery

[winston]

Not vested

The National Social Security Fund sold 35 million shares of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) at HK$5.16 per share on Aug. 30, with a total value of HK$180.6 million ($23.2 million), according to stock exchange data.

Source: MING PAO DAILY NEWS

[winston]

not vested

Goldman Sachs selling up to $1.54 billion ICBC stake

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) is seeking to raise up to $1.54 billion by selling 2.4 billion shares in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) (601398.SS) (1398.HK), sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication, earlier reported the sale, which comes at a time when ICBC shares have recovered about 50 percent from their October lows.

A source said Goldman was executing the sale to reduce its market exposure to the stake.

The Wall Street bank notified the Chinese bank about the impending sale, another source said.

Goldman is offering the shares in a range of HK$4.88-5.00 each, a discount of between 3.7 and 6 percent to the last traded price, a term sheet seen by IFR showed.

Prior to the latest sale, Goldman held a 11.68 percent stake in ICBC's Hong Kong shares worth $6.7 billion.

"It's likely a reflection of Goldman's own desire to book some profit and hedge their risk, rather than a negative view on Chinese banks," said Warren Blight, lead analyst for Chinese bank research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in Hong Kong.

Goldman first bought 4.9 percent of ICBC for about $2.6 billion before the Chinese lender's IPO in 2006, which was then the world's biggest public offering. This is the third sell-down by Goldman in ICBC, raising a total of $5.9 billion.

Goldman Sachs is the sole book runner for the deal.

ICBC and Goldman Sachs declined comment.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/ ... US20111109