Chinese businessman acquires US bank for $60 million

Edited and translated by Ye Xin, People's Daily Online

The acquisition of Atlantic Bank of America makes Lin Chunping, a Chinese businessman the focus of global media during the World Wenzhou Entrepreneurs Convention held recently.

Lin Chunping, a businessman based in Wenzhou, east China’s Zhejiang province, acquired the Atlantic Bank of America for 60 million U.S. dollars in June, 2011.

The bank was renamed U.S.A. New HSBC Federation Consortium Inc. and had been put into trail operation since Nov. 11, 2011.

In early 2009, Lin, 42, with 20-year overseas operation experience, began to target the Atlantic Bank right after it declared bankruptcy in 2008 due to the global financial crisis.

He took two years' time to repeat negotiations with the insolvent bank. The controlling shareholders of the bank made a price of 600 million U.S. dollars at first. However, as the government of the Delaware was eager to activate the bank, Lin fortunately acquired it with 60 million U.S. dollars after continuous bargaining.

Since Lin has no direct experience in managing a bank, the profit pattern of his new bank is to earn the price differences of interests. The bank pays interests to the depositors whose savings are less than 20,000 U.S. dollars. When it collects a large batch of personal savings, it will deposit them in large banks and earn much more interests.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the private capitals in Wenzhou have been urgent to find a value-added channel despite the deteriorated business and policy environment.

Because there is no sign indicating that China's domestic financial policies will be open to the private capital, Lin Chunping and his New HSBC may become a benchmark for private enterprises in Wenzhou. More and more Wenzhou private capitals begin to outflow to overseas financial market.