(Reuters) -Singapore’s DBS Group said on Monday it acquired an additional stake in Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank (SRCB) for 1.60 billion yuan ($220.4 million), bringing its total ownership in the Chinese lender to 19.40%.
DBS, the biggest bank in Southeast Asia, acquired an additional 281.6 million shares in SRCB at 5.67 yuan per share. The Singapore-based firm is already the largest shareholder in the Chinese lender.
DBS first acquired a 13% stake in the Chinese lender in October 2021 and upped it to 16.69% in January last year. It struck a deal with two Shenzhen-based investors in November to buy their combined 2.71% stake.
The transaction will be funded using internal cash resources and is immediately accretive to earnings, DBS said.
“The investment is in line with the group’s strategy to invest in its core markets and expand its exposure to the Greater Bay Area,” it said in an exchange filing on Monday.
Last July, DBS’ outgoing CEO Piyush Gupta told Reuters that the Chinese bank was “nice” and “relatively clean” with “nothing in property or real estate”.
“Over time as it grows, there is an agenda for it to IPO. We are so bullish on the Greater Bay Area … we think activity is good. We think it’s a great platform,” Gupta said at the Reuters Next event.
($1 = 7.2605 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sonia Cheema)
