HSBC will possibly increase its shares in the Bank of Communications of China (BoCoM) within one year, BoCoM Chairman Jiang Chaoliang said yesterday.

 

HSBC bought 19.9 percent of the shares of BoCoM in August 2004 and became the bank's second largest shareholder. BoCoM issued its A-shares this May and HSBC's stake was diluted to 18.6 percent. "All problems involving raising shares have been solved and we are just waiting for opinions from the management team of HSBC," Jiang said. He believed that HSBC would have a positive outlook on its stock expansion.

 

HSBC needs to increase 637 million shares of BoCoM to hit the 19.9 percent proportion it held in 2004, based on the current share capital of BoCoM. Jiang did not detail the prices and ways of raising the stock. H-shares of BoCoM jumped 7.13 percent to close at 11.72 Hong Kong dollars on October 18 and its A-shares tumbled 3.64 percent to close at 14.82 yuan yesterday.

 

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese (http://www.morningpost.com.cn/article.asp?articleid=131780)

(China.org.cn, by Yang Xi, October 19, 2007)