Reporter: Li Yuwen Editor: Zhang Yiming
According to the disclosure of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Li Ka-shing and Li Zeju reduced their holdings of H shares of the Postal Savings Bank twice on October 14 and October 17, reducing the number of shares by 78.517 million shares and 22.801 million shares respectively, totaling about 101 million shares. After the reduction, Li Ka-shing and Li Zeju held about 1.581 billion H shares of PSBC, and their shareholding ratio decreased from 9.03% to 7.96%.
According to public information, when the H-shares of the Postal Savings Bank were listed in September 2016, Li Ka-shing and Li Zeju and his son bought 2.267 billion H shares of the bank through their foundations. In May last year, the Li Ka-shing Foundation reduced its holdings of 22.493 million H shares of the Postal Savings Bank, and at that time, the Postal Savings Bank responded that the reduction was the foundation's daily financial arrangement.
Shareholding reduced to 7.96%
According to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in the two reductions of Li Ka-shing and his son on October 14 and 17, the average price per share was HK$4.6711 and HK$4.7375 respectively. Based on this calculation, the total amount of the reduction is about HK$475 million.
Image source: Hong Kong Stock Exchange website
The reporter inquired about the 2024 interim report of the Postal Savings Bank and found that as of the end of June this year, Li Ka-shing and Li Zeju held a total of about 1.971 billion H shares of the Postal Savings Bank through the Li Ka-shing Foundation and other institutions, and it had been reduced to 1.793 billion shares before the reduction on October 14, which means that Li Ka-shing and others also reduced their holdings of about 178 million shares of the bank during this period.
After reducing their holdings of 78.517 million shares and 22.801 million shares on October 14 and 17 respectively, Li Ka-shing and Li Zeju held about 1.581 billion H shares of Postal Savings Bank, and their shareholding ratio decreased from 9.03% to 7.96%.
Image source: Postal Savings Bank 2024 semi-annual report
Looking back at the beginning of the listing of the Postal Savings Bank in Hong Kong in September 2016, the world's largest IPO that year attracted the attention of many investors, including financial predator Soros. At that time, the Li Ka-shing Foundation acquired a stake in PSBC in disguised form with derivative performance-linked notes (PLN), and then switched from derivatives to physical goods in January of the following year, taking over 2.267 billion H shares of PSBC, accounting for 11.42% of the outstanding shares.
A spokesman for Cheung Wo and Cheung Kong has said that Li Ka-shing has "absolute confidence" in the Postal Savings Bank and believes that it is suitable for Li Ka-shing and his foundation to make financial investments, and that Li Ka-shing regards it as a long-term investment project.
The reporter noticed that Li Ka-shing had previously reduced his holdings in September 2022 and May 2023. In May 2023, the Li Ka-shing Foundation reduced its holdings of 22.493 million H shares of Postal Savings Bank at an average price of HK$5.43 per share, with a total amount of about HK$122 million.
At that time, the Postal Savings Bank responded that the Li Ka-shing Foundation had always maintained a good relationship with the Postal Savings Bank, and that the Foundation had no opinion on the operation and development of the Postal Savings Bank. The foundation was established to promote charitable projects, and all the proceeds from the investment were used for charitable purposes.
Postal Savings Bank H shares have risen by more than 37% this year
PSBC was restructured into a joint stock limited company in January 2012 and listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in December 2019 after being listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September 2016.
At present, the Postal Savings Bank has nearly 40,000 business outlets, and in the first half of this year, the bank achieved operating income of 176.789 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.13%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 48.815 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.51%. As of the end of June 2024, the total assets of PSBC were 16.41 trillion yuan.
Since the beginning of this year, the elephant of bank stocks has danced, the A-share shares of major state-owned banks have repeatedly hit record highs, and the stock prices of many Chinese banks listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange have also gradually risen. The reporter noted that since the beginning of the year, the H shares of the Postal Savings Bank have risen by 37%. As of the close of trading on October 18, PSBC's H shares closed at HK$4.79 per share, up 1.48% on the day.
Postal Savings Bank H-share market trend Image source: Wind
The reporter noticed that Li Lu, a well-known investor, bought H shares of Postal Savings Bank through his Himalayan Capital at the end of 2020, and continued to increase his holdings to 1.274 billion shares at the beginning of 2021, and as of the end of June 2024, the proportion of Himalaya Capital held by Himalaya Capital has not changed.
National Business Daily