The Hong Kong-based bank is aiming to become a regional player with a restructuring within the BOC group.

Bank of China (Hong Kong), which provides services including private banking, has agreed with Bank of China to buy all the issued shares of Bank of China (Malaysia) and Bank of China (Thai) Public Company as part of a restructuring drive in Southeast Asia.

The consideration for the proposed Thailand share acquisition is THB14.900 billion ($424 million); in the Malaysian deal, the bank is paying MYR2.025 billion ($506 million), it said in a statement yesterday.

The acquisitions are subject to the usual domestic and overseas regulatory approvals, it said.

“Southeast Asia is a key region for ‘the Belt and Road Initiative’, and has been one of the core regions for BOC Group’s overseas business development over years. By acquiring the ASEAN assets from BOC, BOCHK can transform from a local bank to a regional bank and leverage its professionalism and geographical advantage to fully implement the integrated strategy of BOC Group’s domestic and foreign operations. It also allows us to extend our business influence to the Asia-Pacific region from our base in Hong Kong, upgrading our China story to an Asia story,” said Yue Yi, vice chairman and chief executive of BOCHK (Holdings).

“After acquiring BOC Malaysia and BOC Thailand, BOCHK will ride on its status as the largest offshore renminbi clearing bank, and fully leverage its competitive advantages in service, product and resources to build up business scale and strength. Catering to the local market needs, we will provide customers with a diversified range of products in trade finance, syndicated loans, asset management, cash management, wealth management, private banking, credit card and renminbi business. We will seek to strengthen the servicing capabilities of our overseas institutions, and enhance our brand awareness and increase market share by capturing the window period for rapid expansion of Chinese banks in the three markets,” Yue added.