Chinese Imperialism

Andrew Marshall (The Land 10.5.14)

GIANT rural lender the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) has opened its first southern hemisphere branch in Sydney - a clear indicator of China's future trade and investment ambitions in Australia. Although government-controlled, ABC, also known as AgBank, is publicly listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong after what was the world's biggest ever initial public offering at the time in 2010 - worth $22 billion. It is headquartered in Hong Kong with 24,000 branches in mainland China plus offices in London, Tokyo, New York, Frankfurt, Seoul, and Singapore. It rates as among the top 10 global banks with 320 million retail customers and 2.7m corporate clients. ABC's initial focus in Australia will be to offer wholesale banking services to lenders and investors, with its Sydney branch opening on Monday to provide corporate lending, trade finance, multi-currency settlements, payments and other services. Bank officials said the institution would be building a foundation to expand within Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. It already has a close relationship with Australian investment banker Macquarie Bank which helped underwrite ABC's public float four years ago, during which one cornerstone investor was Australia's Seven Group Holdings. The initial banking team replaces an ABC representative office in Sydney and is set to grow to more than 30 local staff in the next three years, following the local footsteps of China's other big three financial institutions, the Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and China Construction Bank. NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner said ABC's move into Australia would help encourage more Chinese companies to invest here. "It is a strong signal that China is hearing our message that NSW is open and ready for business," he said. "Bilateral merchandise trade between NSW and China last financial year was valued at more than $27b. "China is our largest trading partner and one of our most important and fastest growing international markets, but the new Agricultural Bank of China's Sydney branch also cements the city's status as a leading financial centre in the Asia Pacific."
While Australia's leading "big four" domestic banks enjoy relatively solid status on the world stage thanks largely to their strength in the local economy and last year's combined profits of $27b, ABC's financial firepower is put in perspective by its recently announced a monster-sized first-quarter profit of $9b. Fortune magazine's Global 500 rates ABC as the world's 64th largest company with total revenues of $US103.5 billion. AgBank of China was recently involved in various seminars and events organised to promote Sydney as a settlement centre for the Chinese currency, the renminbi or yuan. Mr Stoner said Sydney was "extremely well positioned to benefit from growth in the use of the Chinese currency". NSW Trade and Investment had been working with ABC for the past four years to assist with the establishment of the bank's representative office and then upgrade to a branch. AgBank's expansion into Australia continues a gradual trend by Asian lenders in the past five years as European banks reduce their activities after being subdued by the global financial crisis. According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, growth of Asian-owned bank activity in recent years reflected an increasing appetite to expand existing Australian operations as well as establish new footholds for institutions from China and other countries in the region.
http://www.theland.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/chinese-rural-lender-opens-in-aus/2696923.aspx?storypage=2