OREANDA-NEWS. April 19, 2013. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited ("ICBC") announced that a share subscription agreement has been concluded to acquire a 20% stake in Bank SinoPac ("BSP"), SinoPac Financial Holdings' banking unit. ICBC will submit applications for the deal to regulators. If approved, ICBC will be the first Mainland bank to invest in a Taiwan bank through holding shares.

At the third round of Cross-strait Consultation on Banking Supervision on April 1, Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission ("FSC") raised the cap on the maximum stake a Mainland bank could invest in a financial institution of Taiwan to 20%. The transaction can be concluded when FSC amends the regulation, and by that time ICBC will hold stakes in Bank Sinopac. Based on the calculation of the net asset value at the end of June 2012, the benchmark consideration for the stake acquisition will be around 18.7 billion new Taiwan dollars. After winning necessary regulatory approval, the price of the transaction will be adjusted to reflect the actual condition of the targeted assets.

Better serving Chinese and Taiwan companies and economic prosperity is the common mission and objective of banks on both sides of the Taiwan Straits. Over the years, ICBC is committed to the exchanges and cooperation across the Straits in trade, economy and finance. By working with banks in Taiwan, ICBC offers the best financial services to Taiwan companies and will deepen the financial cooperation between China and Taiwan. By the end of 2012, ICBC has 39 correspondent banks in Taiwan, with interbank settlement business amounting to USD70.3 billion.

ICBC and Bank SinoPac have a long history of cooperation, and have created numerous new records in financial cooperation. "USD Remittances in 1 Day Across-the-Straits", "RMB Remittances in 1 Day Across-the-Strait" are new services jointly offered by ICBC and Bank SinoPac for efficient USD and RMB remittances between Taiwan and China, with the total amount of remittance reaching around USD 11 billion and RMB 4 billion respectively as of today.  ICBC and SinoPac Securities together underwrote the first depositary receipts issued by a Mainland company, and the first RMB bonds issued by a Taiwan company in Hong Kong. On October 30, 2012, ICBC and SinoPac Holdings jointly hosted an exhibition illustrating the banking history from money shop to modern bank. The exhibited 600+ bank artefacts gathered from Mainland China and Taiwan took the fancy of many Taiwan visitors, and vividly illustrated the banks on both sides of the Taiwan Straits share historical origin and have a long history of cooperation. The acquisition will enable ICBC to cement the partnership with SinoPac Holdings and Bank SinoPac for a broader and deeper cooperation.

Completion of the transaction is conditional and subject to relevant regulatory approvals.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited

ICBC, the world's biggest listed bank by market value, customer deposit and brand value, has a solid customer base and diversified business portfolio, strong innovation capability and market competitiveness. ICBC provides comprehensive financial products and services to over 4 million corporate clients and 300 million individual customers through its network of around 17,000 outlets in China, some 400 overseas branches and 1600+ correspondent banks globally, as well as Internet Banking, Telephone Banking and self-service banking. With a global business network covering commercial banking across different markets, ICBC holds leading positions in domestic and overseas markets in most of the commercial banking businesses. For more information on ICBC, please visit www.icbc.com.cn.

Bank SinoPac

Bank SinoPac, a wholly owned subsidiary of SinoPac Holdings, has 129 branches in Taiwan, with 90 branches in Taipei downtown. Besides Taiwan, the Bank has branches in Hong Kong , Kowloon, Macau, Los Angeles, representative offices in Vietnam and Nanjing, and also a subsidiary in USA . Bank Sinopac has nearly 5,000 employees, a base of 2,416,000 personal customers and 147,000 non-personal customers and 771 ATMs.