China Construction Bank (CCB), the mainland's top property
lender, said yesterday it plans to aggressively expand its network in Hong
Kong over the next three years to compete with foreign banks.
The
mainland's third-largest bank, which bought Bank of America Corp's Hong Kong and
Macao operations for $1.24 billion last year and renamed it
China Construction Bank (Asia) yesterday, said it will open 14 more branches in
the next three years in addition to the existing branch
network.
"Leveraging on the solid foundation and financial strength of
our new parent company, China Construction Bank (Asia) is ready to embark on a
series of business expansions," said Samuel Tsien, chief executive officer of CCB (Asia).
CCB (Asia) now
has 14 branch networks in Hong Kong and three in Macao.
CCB also plans to
expand in other parts of Asia, and may make other purchases to facilitate its
expansion.
"We do not rule out the possibility of further mergers and acquisitions to carry out our expansion plan," said Fan Yifei,
vice-president of CCB.
Fan said CCB will eventually "go back to the
mainland market" by listing on the A-share market or taking a China Depository
Receipt (CDR).
"A CDR would be preferable since its price would trade
more closely to its H-share counterpart, but it all depends on the situation and
our shareholders' wishes," said Fan.
CCB's top management declined to give
specific Asian expansion plans but said the bank planned to invest HK$200
million ($25.6 million) to add 14 branches.
"Opening each bank branch
will cost about HK$10 million to HK$15 million, depending on the branch size and
location," said Tsien.
Along with the network expansion, Tsien said the
bank would add 300 new staff to increase the size of its workforce to more than
1,000.
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