February 21, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 22, 1427

Karachi: Feb 20: Habib Bank Ltd has decided to acquire 20 per cent shares of a leading Chinese bank in the Xinjiang province, said press release issued by HBL here on Monday.

The bank will sign a memorandum of understanding with Urumqi City Commercial Bank (UCCB) in Beijing to undertake a review for acquiring up to 20 per cent shares in UCCB’s operations in China.

This MoU is the first of its kind between financial institutions of the two countries. President General Pervez Musharraf will be present at the signing ceremony.

UCCB is one of the premier banks in the Xinjiang autonomous region and is headquartered in Urumqi. The bank has a capital of $100 million and an asset base of over $2.1 billion having total employees over 1,000.

Habib Bank, which set up its representative office in Beijing in September 2005, is the first Pakistani bank to participate directly in the Chinese banking sector.

It will use its trade finance expertise to facilitate the growth of trade between Pakistan and China, which reached $2.2 billion in FY05.

The bank will also provide financial advisory and project finance services to Pakistani and Chinese companies seeking to invest in each other’s market. 

The proposed investment in UCCB will be finalized after receiving approvals from the respective Pakistani and Chinese regulatory authorities.  

Besides President Musharraf, the signing ceremony will be attended by Xinjiang Governor Ismayil Teliwaldy, UCCB Chairman Shang Bian Jiang and other senior government officials.