Dalian lender in talks with foreigners

Dalian City Commercial Bank (CCB), China's seventh-largest city bank, plans to sell a 25% stake to overseas investors by the end of the first quarter, the South China Morning Post reported, citing a bank source. Canada's Bank of Nova Scotia, Italy's Banca Intesa and the International Finance Corp, the World Bank's investment arm, are in advanced talks with the bank, the source said. The bank was also seeking domestic investments to improve its capital adequacy ratio to 8% from 5% before the foreign investment and a possible listing. Dalian CCB is regarded as a pioneer in banking reform. It reported a bad-loan ratio of 6.24% at the end of 2005 compared with the average ratio of 7.73% for all CCBs. The 25% stake will be worth more than US$70.4 million, based on the bank's registered capital of more than US$280 million.