(14 November 2006 – China) IBM Global Financing will team up with Citigroup in order to bid for a controlling stake in China’s Guangdong Development Bank (GDB).IBM and Citigroup will form part of a consortium reportedly prepared to bid US$3 billion.
If the bid is rubber stamped by regulators, IBM will own five percent of GDB.
Citigroup has been attempting to fend off French bank Societe Generale which has also been prepared to invest US$3 billion for an 85 percent stake in GDB, according to sources in China.
IBM is well known to the Chinese bank as it supplies some 80 percent of the bank’s IT needs.