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Bank of China
Plans Venture
To Manage Funds
BEIJING -- Bank of China Ltd. said it plans to establish a fund-management joint venture by the end of this year.
"We're still making preparations," Bank of China spokesman Wang Zhaowen said Thursday. He said the bank is in talks with several foreign investors about taking stakes in the joint venture, though he declined to name them.
China in recent years opened the fund-management industry to banks, hoping to channel more deposits into the capital market. Many of Bank of China's domestic rivals have set up fund-management companies with foreign partners.
The number of fund-management joint ventures in China has jumped as foreign banks seek to profit from the growing wealth of China's middle class. Since the first fund-management venture was launched in China in late 2002 between ING Groep NV and China Merchants Securities Co., more than 20 others have followed.
Most recently, China Minsheng Banking Corp.'s board late last month approved plans to launch a fund management joint venture with Royal Bank of Canada.
From: Wall Street Journal, by RICK CAREW
Date: November 10, 2006 Back