(China) – China’s Shenzhen Development Bank has disbanded a management team established with potential US partner Newbridge Capital designed to help Newbridge take a stake in the bank.In October an eight member team was put in place to help improve the Bank’s management processes prior it completing a deal to sell a stake to private equity fund Newbridge Capital – the first time a foreign firm was to have taken effective control of a Chinese bank.
The team, however, has not been able to achieve agreement on the terms of such an arrangement and discussions on the sale of an equity stake have likely fallen through. Reportedly, Newbridge was looking for as much as 20 percent of middle ranked Shenzhen Bank, one of China’s four listed lending institutions. Shenzhen was originally attracted to Newbridge following its successful experience in privatising South Korea’s Korea First Bank in 1999 after its acquisition of 51 percent position.