Bloomberg
Citic Securities Co., China’s largest broker by market value, completed its purchase of Credit Agricole SA (ACA)’s CLSA unit, withholding $100 million of the $1.25 billion price pending its acquisition of the Taiwan operation.
Citic is paying $841.7 million for the 80.1 percent of CLSA that it doesn’t already own, and will pay about $100 million more if it wins regulatory approval and buys the Taiwan business in the next three years, the Beijing-based buyer said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange today. The change won’t have a material impact on CLSA’s operations, Citic said.
Citic Securities had said the deal will boost the share of revenue from overseas operations to 20 percent, up from the 5 percent that it gets now primarily from its Hong Kong unit. The brokerage, founded in 1995, is controlled by government-owned Citic Group Corp., which holds a 23 percent stake.