Hong Kong Chinese Bank

The Hong Kong Chinese Bank was a bank in Hong Kong in which the family of Jackson Stephens of Little Rock held an interest until about 1987, when they exchanged it for the shares of Mochtar Riady's family in Worthen Bank. The bank then became part of the Riadys' Lippo Group, which sold it to CITIC Ka Wah Bank in 2001.¹²

The Worthen Exchange

The Stephens and Riady families had formed Stephens Finance Ltd. in Hong Kong in 1978 and both bought into Worthen in 1983. James Riady and John Huang stayed in Little Rock until about 1987, when, according to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, "the Riadys sold their shares of Worthen Bank and focused their attention on a bank they previously had purchased in San Francisco." The committee explained the exchange in a footnote sourced to the depositions of Arthur Vernon Weaver and C. Joseph Giroir: "The Riadys were bought out of Worthen by the Stephens family after the bank experienced a major defalcation by Bevil Bressler in 1986. After the defalcation, regulators investigated the quality of Worthen's assets and determined there were problems. Allegations were made against Worthen's loan practices and asset quality. Eventually, the Riadys traded their interest in the Worthen Bank for the Stephens' interest in the Hong Kong Chinese Bank, and also traded their interests in other joint ventures." The failed securities dealer was Bevill, Bresler and Schulman.¹

China Resources

"In late 1992," the House committee reported, "China Resources purchased 15 percent of the Lippo owned Hong Kong Chinese Bank." It described China Resources as "a Chinese Government owned company which is a joint venture partner with the Lippo Group and partner in the Lippo controlled Hong Kong Chinese Bank," and stated that China Resources "subsequently infused the failing LippoLand with tens of millions of dollars, effectively bailing the Riady family out of a precarious financial situation." In 1993 Huang and Mochtar Riady asked the Commerce Secretary, Ron Brown, to meet Shen Jueren, chairman of China Resources, and arranged a meeting between Shen and Vice President Al Gore during the same visit to the United States.¹

Citing sources of 1995 and 1996, the committee reported that Lippo owned 59 percent of the Hong Kong Chinese Bank, "a banking and finance firm with $2.3 billion in assets," and 70 percent of Hong Kong China Limited, "a property investment and development firm with $1.2 billion in assets."¹

Sale to CITIC Ka Wah

On October 31, 2001, CITIC Ka Wah Bank agreed to buy the Hongkong Chinese Bank for about 4.2 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash, about 1.4 times its book value. The bank then had 25 branches and total assets of about 20 billion Hong Kong dollars, and was the principal operating subsidiary of the listed HKCB Bank Holdings, whose majority shareholder, Lippo CRE (Financial Services), held 58.78 percent and had indicated that it would vote for the sale. Lippo CRE was a joint venture between Lippo China Resources, controlled by the Riady family's Lippo Group, and China Resources Enterprise, which the South China Morning Post described as "the locally listed arm of the mainland foreign trade ministry's China Resources Holdings"; China Resources Enterprise also held 5.84 percent of HKCB Bank Holdings directly. CITIC Ka Wah was 55.24 percent controlled by CITIC, "the mainland's largest investment company under the control of the State Council." The sale excluded HKCB Bank Holdings' brokerage and fund-management businesses, and required the approval of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.²