
Photo: IC Photo
The vast restructuring effort continues at the Bank of Jinzhou, with the embattled small lender appointing a senior manager at the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) as its new president, according to a Friday filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Guo Wenfeng, currently a vice president of ICBC’s provincial branch in Northeast China’s Liaoning province, will begin his new role as soon as the change wins regulatory approval, according to the filing. Bank of Jinzhou’s current president, Liu Hong, has tendered her resignation “due to personal health reasons,” the filing said.
The appointment came less than a week after ICBC announced that it would invest no more than 3 billion yuan ($435.2 million) in the Bank of Jinzhou through a subsidiary in exchange for a 10.82% stake in the privately owned bank. The investment would make ICBC the largest shareholder of the Liaoning-based lender. ICBC is the world’s largest bank by revenue or profit.
Concerns over Bank of Jinzhou’s financial status have mounted since its Hong Kong-listed shares were suspended in April after it failed to publish a 2018 annual report. The bank’s auditors resigned at the end of May, citing inconsistencies in the bank’s financial statements for 2018 that had made it impossible to complete the audit.
A previous version of this story said Guo Wenfeng’s appointment was subject to approval by China’s securities regulator. That is not correct. The appointment is pending approval from the banking regulator.
Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com)
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