China policy bank emerges as Barclays backer

China Development Bank (CDB) has emerged as a key figure in a bid by British bank Barclays to take over its Dutch counterpart ABN AMRO, the Wall Street Journal reported. CDB will buy 201 million Barclays shares for US$3 billion with Temasek, the Singapore government's investment arm, taking a further 135 million shares for US$1.9 billion. This will enable Barclays to increase its offer for ABN AMRO by US$4 billion to US$93.3 billion, although this still leaves it short of the US$97.9 billion being offered by a Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium. If Barclays is successful, CDB and Temasek will together buy another US$13.5 billion of shares in the bank. CDB's portion could end up representing the largest overseas investment made by a Chinese company to date. It would be an unlikely turn of events, given that CDB was set up with a view to making policy loans to help develop large infrastructure projects.