Project Description
Owned by 59 institutional investors, and thousands of individual stockholders, Minsheng is the first and only national commercial bank that has a majority private sector ownership. It was incorporated on February 7, 1996, and has a full banking license. As of June 30, 2000, It has total assets of US$5.9 billion and net worth of US$700 million. It lent US$2.3 billion to customers, about 63% of which went to small and medium enterprises. It had 1,973 employees.
IFC’s investment in Minsheng complements IFC’s existing and planned investments in city commercial banks, by helping to meet the financing needs of private sector companies across a wide geographical area of China. Through the proposed investment, IFC will also seek to enhance Minsheng’s prospects for sustainability. IFC’s involvement will help Minsheng to access international best practices with regard to corporate governance, capital adequacy, credit, accounting, risk management, internal controls, and other disciplines that would be critical to Minsheng’s future development in financing the rapid growth of China’s vibrant small and medium-sized enterprises. IFC can also help Minsheng in forging strategic alliances with international financial institutions.