Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ), Australia's third-largest bank by market capitalization, is working to acquire a 20-per-cent stake in the Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank. Jock McGregor said, president of ANZ China, while announcing the opening of a representative office in Guangzhou, the capital of South China's Guangdong Province. 

ANZ formed a strategic alliance many years ago with the Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank a rural co-operative before August 2005, McGregor said. 

The Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank has just become eligible for such an acquisition, one year after it was incorporated as a commercial bank, he said. 

Bank Chairman Li Xiulun said last month the bank is actively introducing strategic investors, and aims to eventually open branches outside Shanghai and go public. 

ANZ bought a 20-per-cent stake in Tianjin City Commercial Bank for US$111.5 million in July. 

Meanwhile, China tops a list of countries in the region for future investment by ANZ, which has a presence in 13 countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific, said David Hornery, managing director of ANZ's Asian operation. 

ANZ set up a representative office in Beijing in 1986, which became a branch in 1997, and opened a branch in Shanghai in 1993. 

The bank is profitable in China, recording business growth in line with that of the Chinese economy, McGregor said, declining to give figures. 

It ranks the first in trade finance among foreign banks in Beijing and is one of the top five in the same category in Shanghai in a recent survey by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, he said. 

China is Australia's second-largest trading partner. Chris Lefebvre, chief representative of ANZ's Guangzhou office, said he expected strong growth in Guangdong's economy in the coming years. 

He said in particular there are trade opportunities in the region.

Source:佚名