China's postal bank said to raise US$7b from stake sale

[SHANGHAI] Postal Savings Bank of China Co., which has the most branches of any lender in the nation, has raised 45 billion yuan (S$9.9 billion) selling about 17 per cent of itself to investors including UBS Group AG, according to people familiar with the matter.

The stake sale ahead of a planned initial public offering by the Chinese lender lured nine other firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Temasek Holdings Pte, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

Postal Savings Bank, an arm of state-owned China Post Group Co, is raising capital at a time when Chinese lenders are feeling the squeeze of shrinking profit margins and rising defaults amid the country's deepest economic slowdown in more than two decades.

Calls to Postal Savings Bank's press office in Beijing weren't immediately answered.

BLOOMBERG