Bank of Beijing (SHSE: 601169), a city-level commercial lender in the Chinese mainland, is brought under the limelight owning to a president personnel change.
It said in a statement recently that Yan Xiaoyan, the former president of it, applied to resign owning to age problems not only ago and it thus proposed to let Zhang Dongning, the former vice president of it, be the successor. However, the proposal was turned down by many directors of it at a board meeting on August 2 this year, with some of the directors feeling that it was a pity for Yan to leave and some others believing that she was healthy and had rich management experience and would be competent to continue serving at the position.
It reiterated that the directors later realized that no matter how they rejected the proposal, Zhang would step on. Thus strongly required by representatives from ING, which controlled a 13.64 percent stake in it, a not longer-than-one-year interim should be set in accordance with international customs and during the interim, Yan and Zhang would work together.
Provided that an interim does be set this time, it will be the first time for a Chinese mainland-listed commercial lender to set an interim for a top-executive takeover. The secretary of Yan Bingzhu, chairman of the Shanghai-traded bank, said in a telephone interview later that he knew little about the details as he did not attend the meeting. However, he was sure that it would become the first commercial bank in the Chinese mainland to set an interim for a president takeover.
In line with some industry observers, this is actually a move those directors took to prolong the term of Yan and indicates that she performed well during her term and was thought highly by the directors, especially those from ING. The Dutch investor always has a bigger say in it and according to financial results it released for the fiscal year 2012, it has neither a controlling shareholders nor an actual controller. ING ranked No.1 among its shareholders with a 13.64 percent stake. Beijing State-owned Assets Management Co., Ltd. under the wing of the Sate-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of Beijing, took the second place with an 8.84 percent stake. Beijing Energy (Group) Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SASAC of Beijing, ranked No.3 with a 5.08 percent stake. That is to say the SASAC of Beijing actually served as the biggest shareholder through holding a total of 13.92 percent stake in it.
