The China Ping An Insurance (Group), which had plans to buy a 22 billion yuan (3.2 billion U.S. dollars) stake in Shenzhen Development Bank (SDB), said Sunday that there are no changes in buying into the bank for the moment.
BEIJING, June 14 (Xinhua) -- The China Ping An Insurance (Group), which had plans to buy a 22 billion yuan (3.2 billion U.S. dollars) stake in Shenzhen Development Bank (SDB), said Sunday that there are no changes in buying into the bank for the moment.
There are no changes in the bank, and the stake purchase aims to improve Ping An's financial service and asset structure, said Zhang Zixin, general manager of the China's second largest insurer via a telephone news conference.
Ping An and SDB will operate with their own plans. The management team of the bank will not change right now, according to the Frank Newman, president of SDB, and Richard Jackson, president of the Ping An Bank Co., Ltd.
The company said last Friday it would buy 520 million shares from the U.S.-based TPG's Asian arm Newbridge Capital for 11.45 billion yuan by the end of 2010. Newbridge Capital is currently the top shareholder in Shenzhen Development Bank.
The Ping An would acquire no more than a 30 percent stake in Shenzhen Development Bank after the two deals, and become the top shareholder instead.
The Ping An Group, together with Ping An Life Insurance, currently holds a 4.68 percent stake in Shenzhen Development Bank.