Singapore government's investment arm to pay US$110 million for stake before the bank's HK listing
Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government's investment company, is buying into China Minsheng Banking Corp before the mainland lender's international initial public share offering.
The company struck a deal just before the National Day holiday this month to pay about US$110 million for the 4.56 per cent Minsheng stake held by China National Coal Group, according to sources.
The sale would install Temasek as the seventh-largest shareholder of China's only national commercial bank, which was founded eight years ago primarily with capital contributions from a group of mainland entrepreneurs.
Although analysts see it as having a marginal impact on Minsheng's future operations and IPO prospects, the deal's completion is likely to mark the departure of the Beijing-based bank's last significant state-controlled shareholder.
There have been suggestions that Minsheng wants to market itself as a purely privately owned lender to international investors who have been dismayed by inefficiency, lax risk management, low-quality asset portfolios and poor corporate governance at China's mostly state-controlled banks.