China Dev Bank says not buying into Nigerian bank
BEIJING, Jan 28 (Reuters) - China Development Bank (CDB) on Monday denied media reports that it was in talks to take a minority equity stake in Nigeria's United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA.LG).
The Economic Observer newspaper had cited an unnamed source close to Chinese policy lender CDB as saying it intended to spend more than $5 billion on a stake in the African bank and wanted to have a say in its management, though not a controlling role.
"The story is groundless and not true," CDB spokeswoman Yang Hua said.
"There were some earlier reports and we had clarified that we are not talking about taking a stake. It's just ordinary cooperation," she said.
The Economic Observer also said that UBA had turned down the Chinese lender's proposal to restructure the African bank to lower loan risks.
CDB, which lends under Beijing's guidance, operates a $5 billion China-Africa Development Fund to provide cheap financing to mainland firms doing business in Africa.
Other media reports earlier this month said Beijing vetoed at the last minute CDB's plan to inject cash in Citigroup (C.N), with the U.S. bank trying to repair its balance sheet after big subprime-related losses. (Reporting by Eadie Chen; Editing by Simon Rabinovitch)
