The proposed acquisition of a stake in Wing Lung Bank by China Merchants Bank (CMB) has reached the final phase. Trading of Wing Lung shares was suspended yesterday, and the actual date for the bank's listing withdrawal wasn't revealed.

Currently the sixth-largest mainland bank in terms of assets, CMB will acquire an additional 44 percent of Wing Lung Bank (WLB), bringing CMB's total stake to nearly 98 percent.

The two banks jointly announced the completion of the proposed acquisition yesterday.

According to CMB's statement, its general offer to WLB closed at 4 pm Monday, which was the latest time and date for WLB to accept the offer. "And the bank had not revised or extended its initial general offer," the statement said.

As of the deadline, "CMB received valid acceptances in respect of a total of 103,794,637 offer shares under the general offer, representing ... approximately 44.7 percent of the entire issued share capital of WLB and of the voting rights that may be exercised at general meetings of WLB," the bank statement said.

The new stake is combined with the 1.23 million Wing Lung shares that CMB bought in June, and which represented approximately 53.12 percent of the entire issued share capital of WLB.

"CMB and the parties acting in concert with it in aggregate hold 227,130,807 WLB Shares, representing approximately 97.82 percent of the entire issued share capital of WLB, and of the voting rights, which may be exercised at general meetings of WLB," the bank statement said.

(HK Edition 10/29/2008 page2)