Tuesday, April 18, 2006
CCB ponders buying stake in Bear Stearns
Bear Stearns has held preliminary talks with China Construction Bank about a deal that could involve the state-controlled Chinese lender taking a large minority stake and a board seat at the US investment bank.
According to people familiar with the matter, no agreement is imminent, and there has only been early-stage contact between senior executives at the banks.
The negotiations with CCB come 19 years after Bear Stearns agreed to sell a 20 per cent stake � worth $390m at the time � to a unit of Jardine Matheson, the Hong Kong-based financial services and construction company. But that deal unravelled because of the stock market crash of 1987.
By linking up with CCB, Bear Stearns would follow in the footsteps of rivals such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, which have recently gained significant prese
Can Bear Stearns join the China club and get somebody else to pay the entry fee?
Click here to read Lex
nces in China�s economy through deals with the country�s financial institutions.
But the structure of the potential deal could be controversial: it would mark the first case of a big Wall Street bank being prepared to welcome a state-controlled Chinese company as its largest shareholder. Sources of foreign investment have become a hot issue in the US as politicians mounted successful campaigns to block foreign bids for US companies.
One possibility would involve CCB � the second largest of the big four state-controlled Chinese banks � buying Bear Stear"
According to people familiar with the matter, no agreement is imminent, and there has only been early-stage contact between senior executives at the banks.
The negotiations with CCB come 19 years after Bear Stearns agreed to sell a 20 per cent stake � worth $390m at the time � to a unit of Jardine Matheson, the Hong Kong-based financial services and construction company. But that deal unravelled because of the stock market crash of 1987.
By linking up with CCB, Bear Stearns would follow in the footsteps of rivals such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, which have recently gained significant prese
Can Bear Stearns join the China club and get somebody else to pay the entry fee?
Click here to read Lex
nces in China�s economy through deals with the country�s financial institutions.
But the structure of the potential deal could be controversial: it would mark the first case of a big Wall Street bank being prepared to welcome a state-controlled Chinese company as its largest shareholder. Sources of foreign investment have become a hot issue in the US as politicians mounted successful campaigns to block foreign bids for US companies.
One possibility would involve CCB � the second largest of the big four state-controlled Chinese banks � buying Bear Stear"
