OREANDA-NEWS. October 12, 2012. Amid the new conditions of China's foreign trades, ICBC launches a basket of faster, more convenient and low-cost financial services to dozens of "go global" companies beginning from this year, companies engaged in electricity, telecommunication, transportation, construction, oil and gas, coal, metal and mining, new energy and manufacturing. By end-August this year, ICBC has signed loan agreements with "go global" companies amounted to more than USD 18.7 billion, where over USD 13.4 billion has been disbursed, reported the press-centre of ICBC. 

An ICBC executive said, in recent years, ICBC has provided a full range of services to many large "go global" companies, including financial advisory, offshore financing against standby L/C by domestic branches, M&A loans, project finance, back-to-back entrusted loan and global cash management. Today, being the only bank with most comprehensive services among the commercial banks in China, ICBC offers the fullest range of innovative products and services to "go global" companies, fast, professional, top-of-the-class.

ICBC provides targeted innovative products and services to serve the "go global" or export-oriented companies for their needs at different stages. As most of the Chinese companies "go global" through overseas investments, overseas mergers and acquisitions, contracting for overseas projects or international trades, ICBC provides a range of branded loan products (export credit, project + finance, investment banking + loan, international syndicated loan) to support their "go global" activities.

ICBC also works with other banks to better serve these "go global" companies. An example is cooperation with Standard Bank, the largest bank in Africa in which ICBC has a majority stake. The two banks provided nearly USD 7 billion in loans to support Chinese companies to increase export to Africa and bid more projects, under a new business model – "capacity output + financial support + import of raw material". Since January this year, ICBC has provided loans to China National Electric Engineering Co., Ltd for building a power plant in Botswana's Moropule, ZTE Alcatel's telecom project in Algeria, driving the export of Chinese equipment.

Industry insiders said, as China is opening to the world further, Chinese banks follow the companies to go global to support their global expansion. Hence, ICBC is building a global network to meet the globalization of Chinese economy and companies. At present, ICBC has set up a global network of 252 overseas branches spreading 34 countries/territories. This global service platform, together with a presence in Africa through holding a 20% stake in the Standard Bank of South Africa, covers all the major international financial centers and China's trading regions with well-defined hierarchy, reasonable positioning, diversified channels and efficient operation. As an important supplement to the overseas branch network, ICBC has partnership with 1,591 banks in 137 countries/territories to service customers worldwide.