Valuations of the world’s biggest banks sink to record lows as China’s economic and debt pain spreads in trade war’s aftermath
- Industrial & Commercial Bank of China lost US$11 billion of market value last week
- China’s four biggest state banks have fallen to an average price-to-book ratio of 0.61 on the Hong Kong exchange, a level not seen since 2016
Stock investors have never been so downbeat on the world’s biggest banks.
China’s “big four” state-owned lenders, which together control more than US$14 trillion of assets, tumbled to record-low valuations on Monday amid mounting concern that Beijing will encourage them to bail out smaller peers.
Big Chinese lenders have long sacrificed profits in the name of national service, but that prospect has become increasingly worrying as pressure builds on their regional, city and rural peers. Smaller Chinese banks tracked by UBS Group need an estimated US$349 billion of fresh capital – a sum they may struggle to raise without support from the likes of ICBC.
For shareholders already skittish about the trade war, rising corporate defaults and slowing economic growth, it’s yet another reason to sell.