Fubon Financial Holding will foray into the banking market in southwestern China, as Xiamen Bank, under the auspices of the financial holding, will buy into a municipal commercial bank in the southwestern region, said Daniel Tsai, chairman of Fubon Holding yesterday (Dec. 16). The deal will be settled next January, when the mayor of municipality will come to Taipei for signing the contract for the deal with Fubon.
The deal underscores the aggressiveness of Fubon in tapping the mainland Chinese market in recent years. Taipei Fubon Bank, under the financial holding, will apply to upgrade its representative’s office in Suzhou to a branch soon and will cut a deal for buying into First Sino Bank in Shanghai.
In addition, in a seminar in Sanya of Hainan, Richard Tsai, vice chairman of Fubon Holding, reported that Xiamen Bank has extended its reach beyond Fujian by establishing a branch in Chongqing. Subsequently, the bank will also set up branches in Nanchang of Jiangxi Province and Dalian of Liaoning Province. Moreover, Fubon has joined hands with Shanghai City government in establishing a non-life insurance company and has cooperated with Founder Securities, under the auspices of Peking University, in setting a fund-management firm, the first fund-management joint venture between a Taiwanese firm and a Chinese firm.
Industry insiders speculated that Xiamen Bank would buy into Chongqing Bank or Chengdu Bank, since the two municipalities boast large numbers of Taiwanese-invested enterprises.
Fubon Financial Holding bought into, via Fubon Bank (Hong Kong), Xiamen Bank in 2008, owning 19.99% stake, becoming the first Taiwanese bank, as well as the only one so far, to buy into a mainland Chinese bank.
Industry insiders noted that Fubon Financial Holding focuses its overall deployment on the Chinese market in recent years. In addition to buying into other municipal banks in China via Xiamen Ban, it has reached an agreement for buying into First Sino Bank, a deal which will be publicized following the approval of the regulators of both Taiwan and mainland China.
Fubon intends to make inroads into the Chinese market via establishing subsidiary and branches, as well as buying into Chinese banks, simultaneously.
Xiamen Bank raised fresh fund of 1.05 billion yuan (NT$4.9 billion) via cash increment several months ago, in order to fund the plan of buying into other municipal banks.
(by Philip Liu)