(Photo : China Construction Bank)

Bank of America, a US multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in North Carolina, will soon end its eight-year investment in China Construction Bank (CCB), one of the "big four" banks in the country.

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That is if its plan to sell its remaining stake in the Chinese lender for $1.5 billion will be successful, online financial media reported. According to the report, Bank of America wants to raise as much as $1.5 billion and selling its remaining two billion shares in CCB will give it the money it needs.

Bank of America is reportedly sharing its shares for HK$5.63 ($0.72) to HK$5.81 ($0.74) or at discounted rate of as much as 5.1 per cent based on Tuesday's Hong Kong stock exchange closing price.

Eight-Year Partnership To End Soon

For eight years, Bank of America had made at least $15 billion in sales proceeds and dividends from its China Construction Bank investment, Bloomberg reported. The US lender bought a 9.9 per cent stake in CCB before the Chinese bank went public in 2005. Later, Bank of America bought another 11 per cent for about $9.1 billion.

During the initial stage of its investment, Bank of America announced that the partnership with CCB was designed to give the American lender a much wider access to China's 1.3 billion consumers.

A spokesman for Bank of America in Hong Kong declined to comment on the news.

US Banks Also Cuts China Stakes

Bank of America joins Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Citigroup Inc, and HSBC Holdings Plc in cutting their stakes in Chinese banks and financial institutions.

As this developed, Central Huijin Investment Ltd, an arm of China's sovereign-wealth fund, increased its investments incrementally in China's four major banks, including China Construction Bank.

Huijin, which is a unit of China Investment Corporation, had already invested $340 million worth of shares in four major lenders in the first six months of this year. It seeks to invest further in those banks before the end of the year, sources said.