What’s new: Zhongjing Xinhua Property Management Co., a longtime shareholder of Huishang Bank, agreed to sell its holdings in the bank to Shenzhen Amer International Group for 16 billion yuan ($2.5 billion), the property manager said.
Zhongjing Xinhua and its affiliates are divesting all 1.977 billion of their shares of Huishang Bank, representing 14.23% of the bank’s total equity. The deal is pending approvals from Huishang Bank’s board and regulatory agencies.
This is the second attempt of Zhongjing Xinhua to offload its stake in the bank after a failed deal in 2019 with Ningbo Shanshan Co. Ltd.
The background: Hong Kong-listed Huishang Bank is the most exposed interbank creditor of defunct Baoshang Bank and one of the recipients of Baoshang’s remaining assets.
As part of a state-led restructuring, Huishang took over part of Baoshang’s good assets outside Inner Mongolia, including its branches in Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Ningbo.
In August, a fund managed by China’s central bank injected 8.89 billion yuan into Huishang Bank to help cover losses from buying the Baoshang assets. The fund became the second-largest shareholder of Huishang Bank. Anhui province’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission is the biggest shareholder through several subsidiaries.
Zhongjing Xinhua has been a major shareholder of Huishang Bank since 2006 and was once the bank’s largest shareholder. But disagreements between the two parties started to grow in 2016.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (hello@caixin.com)
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