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Ping An Bank relocates HQ to Shanghai
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-06 08:54
SHANGHAI: Ping An Bank, a joint venture between the Ping An
Insurance (Group) Company of China and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation (HSBC), Tuesday announced the relocation of its headquarters to
Shanghai from Fuzhou, capital of East China's Fujian Province.
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Ping An chairman Ma
Mingzhe (4th L) attends the opening ceremony of Ping An Bank's
headquarters in Shanghai July 5, 2005.
[newsphoto]
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The bank also said it has downgraded its former Fuzhou headquarters to a
branch, effective yesterday.
The bank said the move to Shanghai was an essential step to quickly develop
its business in China.
"We must do this," said Kun-te Chen, president of Ping An Bank.
"The financial market in Shanghai is huge and mature with many international
banks having long established their Chinese headquarters here," Chen added. "The
hot competition in the city poses great challenges, but it will bring more
opportunities to help us grow faster."
Louis Cheung, chief operating officer of Ping An, told local media during a
briefing yesterday in the new headquarters that banking services will become one
of Ping An's key businesses in the future, and the group is "open to any other
opportunities."
Ping An is now China's third financial holding group after CITIC Group and
Everbright Group, with brokerage service, trust, banking, insurance and other
financial businesses.
Cheung declined to comment on the market rumour that Ping An is negotiating
to acquire the Guangdong Development Bank.
Banks in Shanghai, numbering 2,988 at the end of last year, posted a combined
profit of 9.5 billion yuan (US$1.15 billion) in the first quarter of this year,
up 16.5 per cent from a year earlier, according to statistics from the Shanghai
Banking Regulatory Commission.
Profits by foreign banks grew even faster, with a year-on-year increase of
46.8 per cent.
Meanwhile, the city government is spending great effort in enhancing
Shanghai's role as China's financial hub, by attracting more financial talent
and creating a better environment, the city's vice-mayor Feng Guoqin said at
yesterday's relocation ceremony.
Although Ping An Bank currently has only two branches, with a net profit of 3
million yuan (US$362,319) last year, Chen said that his goal was to make it one
of China's top 10 commercial banks within a decade.
"That's not too great an expectation," said Chen, who previously worked with
the Chinatrust Commercial Bank, a major privately owned financial institution on
Taiwan island.
His confidence partially comes from the strong support from PICC.
"We will give as much financial support as possible," said Cheung.
The group's initial public offering in Hong Kong two weeks ago, which raised
US$1.84 billion, greatly enhanced its capital adequacy.
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