AI
Monday, February 29, 2016 1:02:18 PM
Citigroup sells stake in Chinese lender Guangfa for $3 billion
Citigroup Inc (C.N) will sell its minority stake in Chinese regional lender China Guangfa Bank (CGB) for about 19.7 billion yuan ($3 billion) to China Life Insurance Company Ltd (601628.SS)(2628.HK), the insurer said on Monday.
The deal will help the U.S. lender free up capital to expand other activities in the country, said a source familiar with the sale who declined to be named because some details of the transaction were not public.
Citigroup bought the stake in 2006 for about $610 million, implying that it earned more than $2 billion on its investment since then. The transaction is not material to the bank's earnings and is expected to close in the second half of this year, Citigroup said in a statement.
China Life will more than double its stake in CGB from 20 percent after the purchase. Other main shareholders in CGB include State Grid Corp of China and CITIC Trust Co Ltd, each also owning a 20 percent stake.
China's biggest insurer said in a securities filing that besides buying Citigroup's stake it is also buying shares in CGB owned by IBM Credit, a unit of International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N), lifting its holding in CGB to 43.7 percent. China Life agreed to pay about $554 million for the IBM Credit stake.
The sale comes after two failed attempts for CGB to go public the past years, which would have freed up investors including Citigroup to offload their shares in the stock market.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-citigroup-china-banks-idUSKCN0W21AC
Citigroup Inc (C.N) will sell its minority stake in Chinese regional lender China Guangfa Bank (CGB) for about 19.7 billion yuan ($3 billion) to China Life Insurance Company Ltd (601628.SS)(2628.HK), the insurer said on Monday.
The deal will help the U.S. lender free up capital to expand other activities in the country, said a source familiar with the sale who declined to be named because some details of the transaction were not public.
Citigroup bought the stake in 2006 for about $610 million, implying that it earned more than $2 billion on its investment since then. The transaction is not material to the bank's earnings and is expected to close in the second half of this year, Citigroup said in a statement.
China Life will more than double its stake in CGB from 20 percent after the purchase. Other main shareholders in CGB include State Grid Corp of China and CITIC Trust Co Ltd, each also owning a 20 percent stake.
China's biggest insurer said in a securities filing that besides buying Citigroup's stake it is also buying shares in CGB owned by IBM Credit, a unit of International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N), lifting its holding in CGB to 43.7 percent. China Life agreed to pay about $554 million for the IBM Credit stake.
The sale comes after two failed attempts for CGB to go public the past years, which would have freed up investors including Citigroup to offload their shares in the stock market.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-citigroup-china-banks-idUSKCN0W21AC
My post is for Your Eyes only and my entertainment
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
