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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123866949753282015.html
Sure doesn't look like China is bending over backwards for foreign money.
Buying a stake in a Chinese bank certainly isn't easy, but getting out of that stake just got a whole lot harder.
China's banking regulator has said the lockup period on shares owned by overseas investors will be extended to five years, from three years now.
A move like this will discourage potential sources of capital for China's companies. Even in good times, a five-year lockup period would be a stretch for many investors.
That, of course, may be the point.
This is a further hardening of Chinese attitudes to foreign investors -- in this case, with some justification. As recently as three years ago, when a number of Western financial institutions first took strategic stakes in Chinese banks, a statement of confidence in China's banking sector was seen as a considerable bonus for both sides.
The stakes gave the Chinese banks credibility ahead of initial public offerings of shares, while giving Western banks a way to tap China's potentially lucrative -- and certainly huge -- market.
Four years on, the ravages of the credit crunch have Western banks exiting from their investments with unseemly haste.
That hasn't gone down too well in Beijing. The exiting banks have made tidy profits, while plans for the Western "experts" to share technology and expertise now look like so many other promises made during the credit bubble.
So the new message is clear: If you're going to invest in China's banking sector, Beijing is going to see to it that you commit long-term.
Clearly, Goldman Sachs got the message, hence the pains it took last week to focus on its agreement to extend the lockup on 80% of its 5% stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, skirting over its decision to offload the rest of its stake as quickly as allowed.
True, it isn't as though there is a long line of foreign financial institutions with cash to invest anywhere, let alone in a Chinese bank.
Even if there were, China isn't giving foreign banks the red-carpet treatment anymore.
China's banking regulator has said the lockup period on shares owned by overseas investors will be extended to five years, from three years now.
A move like this will discourage potential sources of capital for China's companies. Even in good times, a five-year lockup period would be a stretch for many investors.
That, of course, may be the point.
This is a further hardening of Chinese attitudes to foreign investors -- in this case, with some justification. As recently as three years ago, when a number of Western financial institutions first took strategic stakes in Chinese banks, a statement of confidence in China's banking sector was seen as a considerable bonus for both sides.
The stakes gave the Chinese banks credibility ahead of initial public offerings of shares, while giving Western banks a way to tap China's potentially lucrative -- and certainly huge -- market.
Four years on, the ravages of the credit crunch have Western banks exiting from their investments with unseemly haste.
That hasn't gone down too well in Beijing. The exiting banks have made tidy profits, while plans for the Western "experts" to share technology and expertise now look like so many other promises made during the credit bubble.
So the new message is clear: If you're going to invest in China's banking sector, Beijing is going to see to it that you commit long-term.
Clearly, Goldman Sachs got the message, hence the pains it took last week to focus on its agreement to extend the lockup on 80% of its 5% stake in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, skirting over its decision to offload the rest of its stake as quickly as allowed.
True, it isn't as though there is a long line of foreign financial institutions with cash to invest anywhere, let alone in a Chinese bank.
Even if there were, China isn't giving foreign banks the red-carpet treatment anymore.
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