Bank of Tianjin (BoT) serves customers through a network of 109 branches across the major cities in the country. In 2015, the bank ranked 219 in terms of tier-one capital by the "Global Banking 1000" list by the UK based Banker magazine .[2] As of 31 December 2015[update], the bank had 306 outlets and an asset base of RMB 564 billion (US$84.6 billion).
History
Bank of Tianjin was founded on 6 November 1996 as Tianjin City Co-operative Bank to serve the local communities of the city. In May 1998 the bank was renamed to Tianjin City Commercial Bank.[2]
In March 2007, the bank's name was yet again changed to Bank of Tianjin. This was after receiving foreign direct investment of US$111.4 million from Australian based banking giant, ANZ Group. This gave ANZ group a 20% stake in Bank of Tianjin.[3] The same year saw the bank expand its operations into Beijing.[2]
March 2016 saw the bank list H shares on the Hong Kong Stock exchange after an IPO that was led by BOC International, ABC International and CCB International.[2] The bank managed to raise US$950 million in the public offering[4] short of the US$1.23 billion that the bank was initially targeting.[5] After the IPO, the bank was caught in a $122 million fraud incident at its Shanghai branch. Agricultural Bank of China was said to be investigating a similar incident[6]
Investments
Other than its banking core business, Bank of Tianjin holds a 35% stake in Tianjin Jixian County Bank Co. Ltd, a commercial bank in Jixian County, China. BoT initially held a 53.87% in Tianjin Jixian County Bank but later on ceded stake to other investors.[7]
Ownership
The shares of the stock of Bank of Tianjin are traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, under the ticker: 1578. As of 25 November 2016[update], the shareholding in the bank's stock was as depicted in the table below:[7]
Bank of Tianjin is governed by a fourteen-person Board of Directors with Yuan Fuhua serving as the Chairman of the group and Yuanhua Wen as the President and Executive Director.[8]
