The chairman of bailed-out British bank Royal Bank of Scotland expressed regret at the lender's decision to sell its 4.3 per cent stake in Bank of China, and said Beijing was 'right to be disappointed' at the move.
The British high street lender's chairman, Philip Hampton, said of the BOC stake sale: 'I think they [the Beijing government] were disappointed. And they were right to be disappointed. It was supposed to be a long-term deal.'
RBS bought its Bank of China stake in 2005, in a deal that its previous chief executive, Fred Goodwin, predicted would allow the lender to sell its own banking products to mainland consumers through its partner's vast branch network.
It sold the stake for ?1.7 billion (HK$22.52 billion) last February, after receiving the biggest bailout in banking history from the British government.
At the time, analysts widely predicted RBS had offended Beijing and would be prevented from making more inroads into the mainland's lucrative banking market.
That fear was partly scotched yesterday when Hampton said that RBS won central government approval to launch a securities joint venture with a relatively small, provincial Chinese stockbroker.
RBS has partnered with Guolian Securities, which is based in Wuxi, a city northeast of Shanghai in Jiangsu province. The deal will allow RBS to advise mainland companies on Shanghai initial public offerings, and to help them issue bonds.