Recently, Hankou Bank renewed its contract with Dacheng senior partner Ao Qi and attorney Sa Ren from the international practice to maintain their service as the bank’s standing outside counsel, due to the quality service they’ve delivered in the past.
Established on November 16 1997 and the largest urban commercial bank in Hubei province, Hankou Bank is a regional joint-stock commercial bank based in Wuhan with more than eighty branches, including four subsidiary banks outside Wuhan (located in Chongqing, Huangshi, Yichang and Ezhou respectively) and one subsidiary bank at the Wuhan East Lake New Technology Development Zone(a.k.a., Wuhan Guanggu).
To enhance its overall strength, the bank attracts strategic investment from Lenovo and Wuhan Iron and Steel Corp, seeks listing and carries out its ambition to become China’s Silicon Valley Bank. At the end of 2010, it was ranked the 18thamongst China’s urban commercial banks by China Bank Regulatory Commission, a rise of three places compared with 2009. At the same period, the UK’s “The Banker” magazine ranked it 484th by total assets on the list of Global 1000. At the end of June 2011, the bank held RMB 118.78bn worth of balance sheet assets in both renminbi and foreign currencies and had a net margin of RMB743mln.
By adopting a business model similar to that of Silicon Valley Bank, Hankou Bank conducts active cooperation with venture capital investors such as Lenovo to integrateresources and advantages of both sides, so as to offer small- and medium-sized start-up technology companies integrated financial services featuring the combination of equity financing and debt financing and of both financial and intellectual support. The strategies for financing start-up technology companies vary, depending on the sequence of entry of equity and loans. This flexible approach not only breaks the shackle of banks in supporting technology start-ups, but also pushes forward technological innovation and business growth. The business model, catering to the small- and medium-sized technology companies specifically, is named “tourongtong”, which means facilitating investment and financing in the meantime.