ICBC gets approval to buy 80 pct of SBA

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's biggest lender by market value, on Saturday announced that it has gained approval from the Central Bank of Argentina to take over 80 percent-stake in the Standard Bank Argentina(SBA).

The approval will allow the ICBC to complete the acquisition by paying no more than 650 million U.S.dollars to Standard Bank of South Africa and the Holding W-S De Inversiones S.A., shareholders of the 80-percent stake, as what has been agreed in August last year.

The Standard Bank Argentina is the 12th-largest bank in the country, with total assets standing at 4 billion U.S.dollars by the end of September, and the acquisition will make the ICBC the largest Chinese bank in Latin-America.

For the next stage, the ICBC will work with the two shareholders for the follow-up work to complete the purchase, according to the bank.

By the end of September this year, the ICBC has opened 270 overseas branches in 35 countries and regions, and its overseas assets stood at 154.5 billion U.S.dollars, up 21.5 percent from the beginning of this year.The bank's overseas branches also saw net profit totalling 796 million U.S.dollars, up 27.2 percent year-on-year.