China's biggest bank eyes U.S.

BEIJING, China (AP) -- China's biggest bank, government-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, plans to open its first U.S. branch as part of a global expansion, a state news agency quoted its chairman as saying Wednesday.

"Preparations have been going on smoothly. We hope to receive approval from American authorities as early as possible," said ICBC chairman Jiang Jianqing, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The report gave no details of the U.S. expansion.

On Tuesday, officials confirmed that another state-owned bank is bidding for a minority stake in U.S. securities firm Bear Stearns amid a rapid foreign expansion by Chinese financial institutions.

Jiang said ICBC also plans to open a branch next month in Russia, take over a bank in Sydney, Australia, and open branches in the Middle East in Dubai and Qatar, according to Xinhua. The report said he gave no details of those plans.

The director of ICBC's press department in Beijing, Xie Taifeng, confirmed that the bank plans to open a U.S. branch but declined to say when or where it would be located.

ICBC already has branches abroad in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Seoul and Pusan in South Korea, according to the bank's Web site. Hong Kong and Macau are part of China but are treated as foreign economies by Chinese regulators.

The bank made its first acquisition in 2006, buying Indonesia's Bank Halim.

China's state-owned banks are growing rapidly amid an export-fueled economic boom and are expanding abroad to serve Chinese clients and try to get a foothold in international business.

They are flush with cash following a series of multibillion-dollar stock market offerings in recent years.

ICBC raised a record-setting US$21.9 billion (€15.9 billion) in 2006 with a joint initial public offering on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. E-mail to a friend

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