Bigger stake for Chinese bank in ACL

FINANCE

SURAT THANI : The Finance Ministry is ready to allow the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to take a greater stake in ACL Bank.

Bangkok Bank last month announced it had agreed to sell its 19% stake in ACL Bank to ICBC, China's largest bank. But the Chinese bank seeks a larger holding.

Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said he would consider allowing ICBC to exceed the 49% foreign shareholding limit if an investment was deemed beneficial for the local financial sector.

"The ministry is awaiting a clear statement of intent from ICBC about its investment plans," he said yesterday. "In any case, we are not giving an exemption solely to ICBC. We are ready to offer similar flexibility to other investors as well so long as it benefits the financial sector and leads to better products and services to depositors and borrowers."

ICBC's acquisition of ACL could benefit Sino-Thai relations and trade, he said.

Pricing is another key issue, he said. The Finance Ministry is ACL's largest shareholder with 30.6%. ACL shares are up 188% over three months on speculation of a sale, while the SET rose 32.3%. ACL shares closed unchanged yesterday at 5.95 baht in 99.9 million baht trade.

Sorasit Soontornkes, an assistant governor of the Bank of Thailand, said regulators had received no formal inquiries about an ACL sale.

He said current law made foreign investment in the banking sector more flexible. Regulators previously permitted majority foreign shareholdings only in banks facing financial difficulty.

ACL is one of the country's smallest banks, with assets of 62.33 billion baht and outstanding loans of 40.9 million at the end of May. It posted first-quarter profits of 96.78 million baht, down from 119 million the year before. Consolidated profits were 370.65 million baht in 2008, up from 342.9 million the year before.