China Construction Bank (CCB), the mainland's top property
lender, said yesterday it plans to aggressively expand its network
in Hong Kong over the next three years to compete with foreign
banks.
The mainland's third-largest bank, which bought Bank of America
Corp's Hong Kong and Macao operations for US$1.24 billion last year
and renamed it China Construction Bank (Asia) yesterday, said it
will open 14 more branches in the next three years in addition to
the existing branch network.
"Leveraging on the solid foundation and financial strength of
our new parent company, China Construction Bank (Asia) is ready to
embark on a series of business expansions," said Samuel Tsien,
chief executive officer of CCB (Asia).
CCB (Asia) now has 14 branch networks in Hong Kong and three in
Macao.
CCB also plans to expand in other parts of Asia, and may make
other purchases to facilitate its expansion.
"We do not rule out the possibility of further mergers and
acquisitions to carry out our expansion plan," said Fan Yifei,
vice-president of CCB.
Fan said CCB will eventually "go back to the mainland market" by
listing on the A-share market or taking a China Depository Receipt
(CDR).
"A CDR would be preferable since its price would trade more
closely to its H-share counterpart, but it all depends on the
situation and our shareholders' wishes," said Fan.
CCB's top management declined to give specific Asian expansion
plans but said the bank planned to invest HK$200 million (US$25.6
million) to add 14 branches.
"Opening each bank branch will cost about HK$10 million to HK$15
million, depending on the branch size and location," said
Tsien.
Along with the network expansion, Tsien said the bank would add
300 new staff to increase the size of its workforce to more than
1,000.
(China Daily January 11, 2007)