Bank spokesman Ren Peihua admits that eight foreign investment banks, including Morgan Stanley and BNP Paribas, have shown interest in investing in his bank. But Suzhou does not plan to sell stakes to foreign investors in the foreseeable future because its shareholders take new shares whenever the bank issues them to boost its capital, he says.
Suzhou has not yet released its 2004 financial results. By the end of 2003 its NPL ratio had fallen to 2.3% from 7.6% a year earlier. “The bank is fairly small but it has a good balance sheet. It would be good investment for getting banking experience in a booming town,” says a foreign bank official in Shanghai. The bank’s sizzling economic growth pushed pre-tax profits up by 61.4% in 2003 to Rmb51.63m.
