Standard Bank joins forces with Chinese bank to open Ivory Coast hub
Abidjan — Standard Bank will work with its biggest shareholder, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, to capitalise on an investment drive by the Chinese bank into Ivory Coast in establishing a regional banking hub in French-speaking West Africa. "In Ivory Coast Chinese companies and the Chinese authorities have committed over $7.5bn over the next few years to invest in infrastructure," Standard Bank CE Sim Tshabalala said. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has a 20.1% stake in Standard Bank, which is making its first foray into French-speaking West Africa. "We’re in partnership with them [Industrial and Commercial Bank of China]) in terms of which we are in effect [part of] their Africa strategy," Tshabalala said on Monday in Abidjan, where Africa’s largest bank by assets launched a new subsidiary aimed at corporate and investment banking clients. A post-civil-war economic boom in Ivory Coast, which makes up about 40% of the economy of the eight-nation West African Economi...
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