Stanley Ho To Sell Seng Heng Bank to ICBC

Written on August 25, 2007 by admin

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China’s biggest bank by assets, is in talks to acquire Seng Heng Bank Ltd., a Macau bank controlled by gambling mogul Stanley Ho, published reports said Friday.

Seng Heng, with assets of $3.2 billion, is Macau’s second-largest locally incorporated bank after Tai Fung Bank Ltd.

ICBC is in talks to buy the Macau bank, although nothing has been finalized yet, Dow Jones Newswires reported. It cited an unnamed person it said was familiar with the deal.

The Financial Times reported Friday that talks have been under way for three months.

A spokeswoman for ICBC said Friday the bank would not comment on market rumors. Phones at Seng Heng Bank rang unanswered.

Ho owns the bank through his casino operator Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau, which has a 12.08 percent stake in Hong Kong-listed conglomerate Shun Tak Holdings Ltd. STDM acquired the bank in 1989. It employs about 314 people in Macau, according to the bank’s Web site.

ICBC’s Chairman Jiang Jianqing said in a Hong Kong briefing on its first-half results Thursday that the bank was open to the idea of foreign acquisitions as a means of lowering its foreign currency exposure.

“If there is a good target and the timing is right, we will do it,” he said.

ICBC said it now has about $7 billion in foreign currency holdings and faces the risk of foreign exchange loss in view of the rising Chinese currency.

Source : Yahoo Finance

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