China's ICBC to acquire stake in Thailand's ACL Bank

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's biggest bank by market capitalisation, said Wednesday that it would acquire part of Thailand's ACL Bank for 105 million dollars.

The Chinese lender has signed an agreement with Bangkok Bank to buy the latter's entire 19.26 percent stake in ACL at 11.5 baht a share, ICBC said in a statement filed with the Shanghai stock exchange.

That translates into a total value of 3.5 billion baht, or 105 million dollars, the statement said.

Under the deal, ICBC will also make a subsequent tender offer to all other ACL shareholders, which could allow it to acquire ACL in its entirety pending acceptance representing 51 percent or more of outstanding shares, it said.

The aggregate price for the takeover of all ACL shares is estimated to be 18.3 billion baht (545 million dollars), to be paid in cash with ICBC's "internal resources", the statement added.

The deal would be subject to regulatory approval from both sides.

At the end of 2008, Thailand's finance ministry was the largest shareholder in ACL with a 30.61 percent stake, the statement said. Bangkok Bank was the second largest shareholder.

"This transaction will be of great significance to ICBC in the expansion of its business and network in the Mekong River region and also the Southeast Asia region," ICBC chairman Jiang Jianqing said in a separate statement.

Bangkok-based ACL was established in 1969. It has 16 branches across major cities in Thailand and held 1.9 billion dollars in total assets at the end of June.

ICBC had 16,230 outlets in China and 143 overseas branches and subsidiaries at the end of June, with total assets amounting to 1.7 trillion dollars.