South Africa welcomes bank deal with China
26/10/2007 16:32
South Africa National Treasury yesterday welcomed the US$5.5 billion deal
between the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and its Standard Bank
Group.
Treasury spokeswoman Thoraya Pandy said that this reaffirmed South
Africa as an attractive market for investment.
"We are encouraged that a
world-leading bank by market value, China's leading domestic bank, ICBC, has
decided to invest in South Africa and Standard Bank", Pandy said. "We are of the
view that the capital inflows would be good for South Africa."
ICBC is to buy
a 20 percent stake in the Standard Bank Group. The deal would put the partners
"at the crossroads of economic interaction between China and the African
continent," Standard Bank said in a statement issued in Johannesburg.
China's
state-owned banks are growing rapidly amid an export- fuelled economic boom and
are expanding abroad to serve Chinese clients in foreign markets and win
international business.
ICBC's decision to take a minority stake in the South
African deal, instead of acquiring the bank outright, was in line with the
Chinese strategy of trying to avoid political frictions over the purchase of
assets abroad.
ICBC and Standard Bank have agreed to serve each other's
clients and support each other's international expansion
plans.
Xinhua
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