On Leap Year day China National Chemical Corporation put out a brief announcement to say HSBC and China Citic Bank would lead a three-month $15bn bridge loan to finance its $43bn purchase of Swiss-based Syngenta (as well as another $5bn to refinance the debt of its target). China Citic Bank is one of the smaller of the mainland’s listed state owned banks, and was not the obvious candidate for such a huge, high-profile transaction.
2月29日,中國化工集團公司(China National Chemical Corporation,簡稱中國化工)發出了一份簡短的聲明,表示匯豐銀行(HSBC)和中信銀行(China Citic Bank)會牽頭發放為期3個月的150億美元過橋貸款,為該集團以430億美元收購瑞士先正達(Syngenta)提供資金。此外,它們還會提供另外50億美元的貸款,為先正達的債務提供再融資。中信銀行是中國內地上市國有銀行中規模較小的銀行之一,對于這樣規模巨大、備受關注的交易,該行并不是顯而易見的候選銀行。