CHINA LIFE MAY HAVE RAISED SHARE OF CITIGROUP CONSORTIUM

China Life, a member of the Citigroup-led consortium that is likely to buy Guangdong Development Bank, is likely to raise its participation in the consortium to 30% from 20%, according to a report in official publication Shanghai Securities News , which did not name its source. The report claimed that consortium members China National Cereals, Oil and Foodstuffs Corp (COFCO) had agreed to take only a 10% stake, down from 20%. However, China Life only had assets of 559bn yuan at the end of 2005, and regulations restrict insurers from investing more than 1% of its assets at the end of the previous year in a single commercial bank. A 30% stake in Guangdong Development Bank could cost 8.5bn yuan. Meanwhile, China Banking Regulatory Commission chairman Liu Mingkang insisted that it was still not officially decided which of the three consortia bidding for Guangdong Development Bank had won, and that there was no clear timetable for a conclusion to the bidding. Apart from the Citigroup-led consortium, consortia led by France’s Société Générale are looking to take an 85% stake in the bank, which has a number of bad loans on its books.