Hang Seng Bank plans to increase its outlets on the Chinese mainland to 30 by the end of next year and to more than 50 by 2010, joining an expansion spree by overseas lenders, a senior executive said.

 

"We plan to invest more than HK$1 billion (US$128 million) to expand our mainland network and service capacities by the end of 2008," Chief Executive Raymond Or said in a statement yesterday.

 

The Hong Kong banking giant has also submitted its application to incorporate on the mainland, and if this goes smoothly, "we will set up a mainland subsidiary bank headquartered in Shanghai in the first half of 2007."

 

The bank's development plan came shortly after the fifth anniversary of the mainland's accession to the World Trade Organization and the day it started to fully open its banking sector to overseas investors.

 

Hang Seng Bank currently has 15 branches, sub-branches and representative offices on the mainland, fewer than rivals such as HSBC and Bank of East Asia.

 

The bank has so far invested more than 3.8 billion yuan (US$487 million) in the mainland. In September, the bank had a board meeting in Shanghai, the first time it held such an important gathering on the mainland.

 

Like most overseas lenders, Hang Seng Bank will focus on the high-end market.

 

That is also why the branches to be opened will mainly be located in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta, two major economic engines and the mainland's most affluent areas, Or said.

 

New outlets will also be opened in major cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

 

"We just cannot compete with local banks (such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) in the mass market," he told reporters.

 

In Shanghai, for example, Shanghai Commercial Bank has around 200 branches, while Hang Seng Bank has just six.

 

"We would like to mostly and cautiously lend to and deal with foreign enterprises and wealthy domestic clients that we are familiar with," said Or.

 

"That's our strategy, which will not be altered simply because of rivals' explosive expansion."

 

May Yan, a senior banking analyst from Moody's Asia Pacific, said Hang Seng's plan is in line with the situation on the mainland, where domestic banks dominate the mass market with a huge spread of networks while overseas banks attract high-end corporate and individual clients with their management and experience.

 

But compared with home rivals, "Hang Seng has to catch up in the mainland play."

 

For example, Bank of East Asia already has 31 outlets and plans to open 10 more in 2007.

 

Hang Seng Bank also plans to boost its mainland workforce. The lender, which currently has 550 mainland staff, will increase that number to more than 1,000 by the end of next year and over 2,000 by 2010.

 

When asked about acquisition opportunities, Or said: "We're open."

 

He said that the bank had been engaged in many discussions with mainland lenders two or three years ago, but refused to say whether any of these were still going on.

 

Johnson Fu, Hang Seng's head of mainland business, said it would be an difficult task to pass its corporate mindset and culture to a local player, indicating the bank would be cautious about its next acquisition.

 

An overseas bank is allowed to have stakes in two mainland banks, and Hang Seng now has an almost 16 percent stake in the medium-sized Industrial Bank in East China's Fujian Province, which it bought in 2004 for 1.73 billion yuan (US$220 million).

 

(China Daily December 13, 2006)