Question & Answer: Article on The Wall Street Journal by Margot Patrick " Legend Pushes into Europe" ….please…..

Ans: Legend Holdings Corp. has made China’s one of the biggest players into European banking. Its an an agreement to buy Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) from Qatari owners and turn the same into an international banking brand. Beiing based computer manufacturer Lenovo said that it would pay approximately $1.76 billion for a 89.9% stake that translates to a value of Banque Internationale a Luxembourg around Eur1.6 Billion.

Founded in 1856,BIL is Luxembourg’s one of the oldest privately owned bank. Legend Holdings Chairman Liu Chuanzhi stated that next plan now is to take BIL from a national champion to global, while still keeping its base in Luxembourg. Luxembourg has suddenly become a power hub of Chinese banks operating in Europe.Only a handful of European banks have been bought by the Chinese so far. BIL’s seller, Precision Capital, belongs to Qatar’s royal Al-Thani family. It bought the bank back in 2011 when BIL’s parent, Dexia, was selling off its assets to comply with state bailout from France, Belgium and Luxembourg at a price of Eur 730 Million.

Legend is best known for its portfolio “new China” in the consumer and financial sector. It is seen as high growth because of the country’s growth in consumer class.