China International Trust Investment Corp Citic, the mainland's flagship investment firm, could be the first Chinese financial group to list its shares overseas. The move comes amid greater calls among bankers to expand the capital structure of financial services groups to include foreign partners.
The Chinese authorities may use Citic as a test case to see how the market responds to capital demands from ChinaÆs financial institutions,ö says John Hobson, banking research head for Credit Suisse First Boston CSFB. ôPart of Citic's appeal is that is that it doesnÆt have the same large exposure to ChinaÆs state-owned enterprises SOEs that ChinaÆs four big banks do.ö
Citic plans to merge its...