CPIC Said to Invest in Bank of Tianjin

China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co. (CPIC, 601601.SH), based in the financial capital Shanghai, is reported to make investment into Bank of Tianjin.

According to sources, CPIC is going to buy 100 million shares of the city bank at a price of CNY 520 million, thus to become the financial investor of the lender. By now, Bank of Tianjin has been busy with the listing preparations.

Available data showed that by the yearend of 2009, Bank of Tianjin had the total assets of CNY 149.3 billion and the net assets of CNY 8.3 billion. As early as 2006, it had ushered in Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ Bank) as the second largest shareholder. From 2007 on, the bank started the trans-regional expansion.

As of December 31, 2009, the capital adequacy ratio of Bank of Tianjin stood at 12.34% and the non-performing loan ratio stood at 1.54%. With a 27.47% stake in Bank of Tianjin, Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone Investment Co. currently is the largest shareholder of the city bank.

Following the listings of Bank of Nanjing (601009.SH), Bank of Ningbo (002142.SZ) and Bank of Beijing (601169.SH), other city lenders like Bank of Hangzhou, Bank of Dalian, Bank of Shanghai and so forth are also eager to go public.

During November 2009, CPIC took part in the additional share sale of Bank of Hangzhou, having paid CNY 1.3 billion for 100 million shares of the city bank, accounting for 5.98% of the lender’s enlarged capital stock and thus becoming the fifth biggest shareholder of the bank.

Also, some of China’s rural commercial Banks are interested in becoming publicly traded. Based in the southwest provincial-level city Chongqing, Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank was the country’s first listed rural lender. On December 16, 2010, the bank made debut on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, one of the international financial centers. Currently, the rural lender has CNY 7 billion in registered capital and CNY 200 billion in total assets; and it runs 1,763 local branches and sub-branches.

Another four such lenders in East China’s Jiangsu Province have also filed applications for getting listed. They are Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank, Wujiang Rural Commercial Bank, Jiangyin Rural Commercial Bank and Changshu Rural Commercial Bank. In addition, Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank and Beijing Rural Commercial Bank also want to go public in the coming several years once qualified.