On November 7th, CCB entered into an agreement with Lai Sun Development of Hong Kong.  According to this agreement, the two parties will jointly invest in re-developing Ritz Carlton Hotel into a Grade A office building, part of which will be reserved for use by CCB’s Hong Kong operations.

Located in Hong Kong’s Central District, the Ritz Carlton Hotel is presently wholly owned by LSD’s subsidiary Diamond String.  According to the terms of this agreement, CCB will acquire through one of its wholly owned subsidiaries a 40% interest of Diamond String with a consideration of HK$1,369 million (subject to adjustments).  It is expected that the transaction will be completed by December 2007 and the re-development will be completed in 2011.

Keen on implementing its overseas development strategy, CCB considers Hong Kong a focal point for expanding its overseas businesses and a base from which to provide financial services to its mainland, Hong Kong and Macau customers.  Already by late September this year, the integration of it businesses and organisations in Hong Kong had been completed.  Currently there are a total of three CCB organisations in Hong Kong, viz, China Construction Bank Hong Kong Branch, China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited and CCB International (Holdings) Limited.  Together, they are at an initial stage of providing service platforms for wholesale banking, retail banking, investment banking and banking for small and medium enterprises.

Profile of China Construction Bank

China Construction Bank Corporation (”CCB”) has a long history of operating in China.  Its former self, People’s Construction Bank of China, was established in 1954 and was renamed China Construction Bank in 1996.  The Bank was separated from China Construction Bank in September 2004 by inheriting the commercial banking business and related assets and liabilities of the latter.  With its headquarters in Beijing, CCB has a network of 13,000 branches and sub-branches in mainland China as at the end of September 2007, and maintains overseas branches in Hong Kong, Singapore, Frankfort, Johannesburg, Tokyo and Seoul, while having representative offices in London and New York.  The Bank holds a 100% interest in China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited, a 75.1% interest in Sino-German Bausparkasse, and a 65% interest in CCB Principal Asset Management Co. Ltd.  It has a staff count of around 300,000.

CCB began trading its H shares on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited on October 27th 2005 (stock code: 0939).  Its A shares started trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on September 25th 2007 (stock code: 601939).