Mark Lennihan/Associated PressThe headquarters of Goldman Sachs in New York.Goldman Sachs is selling a $1 billion stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the largest Chinese bank.
The share sale, which was begun on Monday, is the second time in less than a year that Goldman has reduced its holdings in the lender after acquiring its stake before the Chinese bank’s initial public offering in 2006.
Goldman has been selling off its shares as part of a broader effort to reduce its exposure to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which has benefited from an almost 50 percent rise in its share price over the six months.
Under the terms of the deal, Goldman will sell Hong Kong-listed shares in the Chinese bank at 5.77 Hong Kong dollars (74 cents) each, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The exact number of shares has yet to be confirmed, the person added.
The share sale represents around a 3 percent discount to the bank’s closing share price on Monday.
In April, Goldman also sold $2.5 billion of shares in the bank to the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings and other institutional shareholders.
Its investment in the world’s largest bank by market value has proved successful for Goldman. After initially investing around $2.6 billion, Goldman Sachs has raised more than $4.5 billion by progressively selling down its stake in the Chinese bank.