BIZCHINA / Overseas Investment |
BBVA pays 989 mln euros for China's CITIC stake(Reuters)Updated: 2006-11-23 11:37 Spanish bank BBVA said on Wednesday it had bought 5 percent of China's CITIC group and 15 percent of Hong Kong-listed CITIC International Financial Holdings Ltd for 989 million euros. BBVA said in a posting to Spain's stock market regulator CNMV that it had an option to raise its stake in CITIC to 9.9 percent. It paid 501 million euros for 5 percent of CITIC and 488 million for the stake in its international arm. It was the biggest investment by a Spanish company in China, said BBVA, which already has a strong presence in Latin America and earlier this year bought two Texas-based lenders for $2.64 billion. CITIC, China's number seven lender, will give BBVA access to China's retail and corporate banking markets. BBVA had faced competition for the CITIC stake from Japan's Mizuho Financial Group Inc , France's BNP Paribas and China's largest life underwriter, China Life Insurance , a source familiar with the situation had said earlier in November. BBVA said it would give a presentation about the deal at 11 a.m. Spanish time (1000 GMT).
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