Analysis | How did international banks miss Citic Pacific's US$36 billion takeover deal?
Foreign bankers jealous of Citic's takeover of HK subsidiary, having been left out of the deal because of its size and political sensitivity
Jealous. This is the word many Western bankers in Hong Kong will use when they talk about the mega-sized reverse takeover deal of Citic, one of the most important state-owned industrial giants on the mainland.
Why jealous? It took Citic, led by chairman Chang Zhenming, just six months to finalise the plan to let its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary Citic Pacific acquire its assets in a deal valued at about US$36 billion.
The only help that senior executives at Citic received was from a small team of Beijing-based merger and acquisition specialists - fewer than 10 people - at subsidiary Citic Securities, the largest securities house on the mainland, said people familiar with the situation.
"First, it's obviously a very big deal so how to make sure the information won't be leaked is very important. We trust our own people of course," said one of the people.
This is related to … reform so it’s more sensitive and complicated
"Second, this is related to state-owned enterprise reform so it's more sensitive and complicated than purely a merger and acquisition deal.