China Development Bank’s plan to bid for Germany’s Dresdner Bank failed in large part because Chinese leaders refused to agree to the deal in time, in a sign of Beijing’s increasingly cautious attitude to investments in western financial institutions. The hesitancy of China’s state council to approve a potential $10bn bid for a majority stake in Dresdner is another sign of Beijing’s caution after investments in western counterparts last year, most of which have fallen in value. Beijing has not approved any major Chinese offshore investment in a financial firm this year. CDB began working in January on an offer to buy a controlling stake of about 50% in Dresdner for about $10bn from Allianz, the German insurer. But CDB was never able to submit a formal bid and Allianz agreed at the weekend to sell Dresdner to German rival Commerzbank.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 5:32 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A. Tagged with allianz, china development bank, commerzbank, Dresdner Bank. Edit this entry.