Municipal commercial lender Bank of Sichuan (四川银行) has flagged plans to list within the next several years just prior to a sizeable shift in its equity structure.
Guang An Jincai Investment and Financing (Group) Co., Ltd. (广安金财投融资（集团）有限责任公司) has made a winning bid of around 130 million yuan for 99.970393 million shares in Bank of Sichuan held by Sichuan Haoji Food Co., Ltd. (四川濠吉食品集团有限公司), according to data from Alibaba’s auction platform concerning an auction held from 10am 6 May to 10am 7 May.
Guang An already held a stake of 0.7692% in Bank of Sichuan, with the latest share acquisition set to raise its equity holdings in the regional lender by 0.333% to over 1%.
Guang An is state-owned subsidiary of the Guangan municipal government, and as of the end of 2020 had made cumulative investments of 9.566 billion yuan, with consolidated assets of 21.8 billion yuan.
Bank of Sichuan has registered capital of 30 billion yuan, making it the largest municipal bank in China.
Bank of Sichuan commenced official operation in November last year, and is the product of a merger between Liangshanzhou Commercial Bank (凉山州商业银行) and Panzhihua Municipal Commercial Bank (攀枝花市商业银行), both of which were troubled lenders in Sichuan province with heavy debt burdens that had failed to file their performance results on schedule.
Its biggest shareholders include Sichuan Financial Holdings (四川金融控股集团有限公司), which has a 20% equity stake, Liangshanzhou Development Group Co., Ltd. (凉山州发展（控股）集团有限责任公司) (15%) and Chengdu Tianfu Capital Investment Co., Ltd. (成都天府资本投资有限公司) (10.2564%).
Bank of Sichuan has already commenced listing procedures, while at its annual work meeting held on 27 April the lender announced the targets of “satisfying listing conditions in three years,” as well as “joining the mid and upper-ranks of China’s province-tier banks in five years”
As of the end of 2020 Bank of Sichuan’s total assets were 136.918 billion yuan, for an increase of 34 billion yuan, or 33.05% compared to the start of that year.
It had deposits of 94.562 billion yuan, for an increase of 14.312 billion yuan, or 17.38%, compared to the start of the year, while it had made loans and advances of 65.459 billion yuan, for an increase of 16.777 billion yuan, or 34.46%, over the same period.
Operating revenues were 2.179 billion yuan, for net profits of 346 million yuan.
