The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) has started a public consultation on its proposal to abolish the foreign ownership cap in the banking sector, which was published on June 8 .
Foreig n banks will be governed by the same rules as their local peers when taking a stake in Chinese banks, said the CBIRC. The regulator is thereby ending the restriction for a single foreign financial institution to own more than 20% of a Chinese bank, and the rule which bars Chinese banks from having more than 25% of their stake held by foreign financial institutions.
The consultation, which is open until July 8, follows China’s decision to lift foreign ownership caps across the financial sector last November.
Xiaomi is hoping to list in Hong Kong and sell 30% of its $10bn IPO in CDR format in the onshore A-share market, according to our sister publication, GlobalCapital Asia.
The company has confirmed Citic Securities as the lead to sell depository receipts in China, according to a draft prospectus filed with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on June 7, which was made public this morning. The transaction is set to become the inaugural listing of CDRs.
LuxSE and the SSE launched the Green Bond Channel on Friday, an initiative which provides offshore investors with information in English about onshore Chinese green bonds trading in Shanghai, according to a June 11 press release by the bourse .
Man y international investors are shying away from onshore green bonds due to the lack of information about them in English, said Robert Scharfe, CEO of LuxSE. He said the new channel can fill this gap and help China broaden its fixed income investor base internationally .
Th e Green Bond Channel provides information on 18 onshore bonds, worth Rmb23.1bn ($3.6bn) in total, according to a June 8 press release by the SSE. This includes bonds issued by Beijing Enterprises Water Group, China Three Gorges Corporation and China Huadian Corporation.
GlobalRMB reported last September that LuxSE was planning to launch a similar information sharing mechanism.
BlackRock’s Shanghai-based wholly foreign-owned enterprise has set up its first onshore equity fund, which will target institutional investors and high net-worth individuals in China, the asset manager said in a June 7 press release. BlackRock said it will use big data and technology to generate returns for the fund’s investors.
The Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF), a joint venture between Russian Direct Investment Fund and China Investment Corporation, has set up a Rmb1.5bn fund with Suiyong Capital and Dazheng Investment Group to invest in projects in China and Russia, RCIF said in a June 8 press release.
The fund aims to raise another Rmb5bn from institutional investors in China and will invest in the processing of natural resources, financial services, industrial production, healthcare and technology. The investment will be split equally between China and Russia, said RCIF.
The Silk Road Fund will make RMB and dollar-denominated investments in oil and gas projects in Uzbekistan, after signing an agreement with Uzbekneftegaz, an energy company in the Central Asian nation, on Thursday, the fund said in a June 9 statement.
The fund also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan to encourage Chinese companies to help build a tourism complex in Samarkand, the country’s second largest city.
The two projects will help promote Uzbekistan’s oil and gas and tourism industries, improve bilateral ties between China and Uzbekistan, and expand the Belt and Road Initiative, said the Silk Road Fund.
The CSRC and Iran’s Securities and Exchange Organization signed an MoU to cooperate in regulating securities and futures on June 10, according to a short statement published on the same day by the Chinese regulator. The MoU will strengthen the relationship between the two regulators, said the CSRC.
Bank of China has opened a branch in Chile, its fifth in Latin America, the bank said in a June 7 press release. BOC said the new branch will engage in a variety of business lines, including deposits, loans, international settlements, trade finance and financial markets.