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BofA BEING COURTED FOR ACQUISITION

RALEIGH, North Carolina - With banking mergers and acquisitions heating up, some big U.S. and European banks are eyeing Bank of America as a possible partner.
 
So say pros who have been buying shares, reports Business Week magazine. On fundamentals alone, BofA stock, now at 81.99, is worth 96, says Jeffrey Kleintop of PNC Advisors, which owns shares.

BofA's strategy is to be an acquisitor, "but it could be a target," he says, because of its hefty slice of US consumer and commercial banking - serving 21 million households and 2 million businesses.
 
BofA is now acquiring FleetBoston Financial. "I'm not sure with whom, but there's an opportunity (for BofA) for an overseas partnership," says Kleintop. Second only to Citigroup in assets, BofA will drop to third place in June after J.P. Morgan Chase closes its purchase of Bank One.
 
The biggies - Citigroup, Deutsche Bank (DB.), and BNP Paribas - have said they are focusing on acquisitions. Kleintop says the revival of M&As, the bank's highest-margin business, bodes well for BofA as it ranked No. 3 in US deals in the past quarter. On the rise, too, are investment banking, brokerage, and asset management, Kleintop said.
 
THREE HK BANKS GIVEN SHENZHEN GO-AHEAD

BEIJING - China's bank regulator has approved applications by three Hong Kong-based commercial banks to open branches in southern Guangdong province's Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.
 
The three banks are Wing Lung Bank Ltd., Dah Sing Bank, and Shanghai Commercial Bank Ltd., a statement posted on the Web site of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), said.
 
The approvals follow a lowering in the minimum asset requirement for Hong Kong banks to enter the mainland China market to $6 billion from $20 billion as part of the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement, or CEPA, between Beijing and Hong Kong.
 
CEPA gives Hong Kong companies greater access to China's markets at lower tariffs than those from other countries as allowing them to make inroads into sectors including telecommunications and insurance.
 
The two sides finalized the details of the trade and investment accord in September and the deal officially took effect January 1.

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