Cathy Chan & Fox Hu
Bloomberg ^[1]
Jan 28, 2013

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) is seeking to sell a $1 billion stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. after the world’s biggest lender by market value rebounded almost 50 percent from last year’s low.

The shares are being offered at HK$5.77 each, 3 percent lower than the Chinese lender’s HK$5.95 (1398) closing price in Hong Kong today, according to a term sheet obtained by Bloomberg News. The document doesn’t indicate the specific number of shares offered.

Investing in local lenders in China is reaping bigger profits for foreign banks than operating their own franchises in the world’s second-largest banking market. The Western firms’ gains on those stakes are set to exceed their investments with more than $20 billion in holdings remaining even after they recouped about $24 billion.

The Wall Street firm is selling down an investment first made in January 2006 when New York-based Goldman Sachs and client funds it manages agreed to invest $2.58 billion in Beijing-based ICBC. The bank and the funds have offloaded ICBC shares at least four times prior to today’s effort, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Full article here ^[1]