The news in June that Chinese brokerage Citic Securities had agreed to buy a 19.9% stake in the brokerage and research arms of French bank Crédit Agricole – namely Paris-based Chevreux and Hong Kong-based CLSA – was seen by many as a sign that China's strong and ambitious banks were beginning to seriously flex their muscles outside of their domestic market, and with shares in many Western banks going cheap, perhaps the time was ripe for investing in western European or North American lenders.
China's banks certainly have the purchasing power. As the Western banking sector has grown weaker in the post-crisis landscape, their Chinese counterparts have grown stronger. Bank of China, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China lead a coterie of Chinese banks valued at more than $100bn. They are well-capitalised, they are large and they are growing at about 8% annually.
