StanChart to begin AgriBank partnership in Hong Kong

StanChart's will offer advice to AgriBank on conducting business on its home market after investing $500mln.

Standard Chartered Plc, which invested $500 million in Agricultural Bank of China Ltd.’s initial public offering, plans to start a cooperation agreement with the Chinese lender by offering advice on capital markets business in Hong Kong.

“We’re planning to initiate the first phase in the Hong Kong market,” Jaspal Bindra, chief executive officer for Asia at Standard Chartered, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on July 14. “That’s the market where there are most advanced talks and we would like to go further. It’s a home market for us.”

Agricultural Bank’s IPO makes China home to four of the world’s 10 biggest banks by market value, half a decade after the country’s first major state-owned lender went public. The investment allows Standard Chartered, which makes most of its profits from emerging markets, to speed up growth in the world’s most populous nation by partnering with China’s largest bank by customers.

“Standard Chartered has always held the philosophy that we are not one for passive investment,” said Bindra. “So we would only like to make an investment where we can leverage that with some level of participation, and I think Agricultural Bank offered us that opportunity.”

View the full story in Business Week.