Associates First Capital, a unit of Citigroup Inc, has joined a consortium bidding for a stake in Guangdong Development Bank after the Carlyle Group left.

AFC plans to take 5 percent stake in Guangdong Bank based in southern China's Guangdong Province if the Citigroup-led consortium beats rival bids from a group led by France's Societe Generale.

Washington-based buyout firm Carlyle decided to pull out of the bidding after Chinese regulators expressed concern over whether it should be part of the Citigroup consortium.

Citigroup, the world's biggest financial-services company, and partners are competing against a group led by SocGen, the third-biggest French bank, in a US$3 billion bid for 85 percent of Guangdong Bank.

SocGen revised its bid from 25 percent to 20 percent, the maximum cap that overseas banks can hold in a domestic lender, in July. The total bidding price remains at 23.5 billion yuan (US$2.96 billion).

China has not made a decision on which rival banking group will gain control of the Guandong bank and the verdict is set to come as early as Sep 22.

The bidding has stretched for more than a year.

The bank, China's 11th biggest lender, is a test case in the nation's banking reform in allowing the bank to sell a majority stake to private investors.

The bank more than tripled first-half pretax profit from the year before to 1.68 billion yuan.

Source:佚名