Helping companies shine overseas

When mentioning the successful cases of how Bank of China has helped Chinese enterprises develop in markets involved the Belt and Road Initiative and assist local growth, the acquisitions of offshore assets by Zijin Mining and the acquisition of Logicor by China Investment Corporation are much cited.

In the Balkan country of Serbia, Bor Copper Mine used to be a pillar of its industrial sector. But it began to decline in the 1990s, despite the government's efforts to keep it moving with huge amounts of subsidies.

After many unsuccessful attempts to lift it out of failure, the Serbians resorted to the Chinese embassy in Serbia for help in 2017.

Embassy officials visited BOC's branch in Serbia, expecting the bank to promote the cooperation between the copper mine and certain Chinese companies.

Responding to this, Liu Xiaofei, then chief of the branch, immediately flew back to Longyan city in Fujian province, informing Chen Jinghe, board chairman of the local company of Zijin Mining on a possible partnership with Bor. Liu introduced the status of Bor and proposed BOC's financial service solutions to a possible partnership.

Chen visited Bor twice since December 2017 and reached an agreement for cooperation with the Serbian company in March 2018.

According to the agreement, Zijin acquired 63 percent of the equity of Bor Copper Mine for $350 million. This was by then the largest project in Serbia receiving Chinese investment. The equity transfer ceremony was held in December 2018.

BOC had taken part in the whole process of the project's implementation, from proposing partnership solutions in the beginning to granting a loan of $210 million to finance the acquisition.

But BOC's services didn't stop there.

To tackle the pressure in cash flow caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, BOC Serbia further granted a loan of $200 million in 2020 to ensure its stable operations.

BOC continued to offer support in the years to follow. This included a BOC-led syndicated loan worth $278 million in 2021 and a $200 million ESG loan in 2022. ESG is short for environment, society and governance.

With sustained assistance from BOC, Bor Copper Mine has kept steady development.

In 2021, the copper mine yielded an output value equal to about 3 percent of Serbia's GDP. In 2022, its business revenue reached about $968 million and net profit hit $259 million.

Over the past few years, the facility has created about 8,000 jobs for locals.

When Zijin was in touch with Bor in 2017, China Investment Corporation had already made a milestone deal in Europe. It completed the acquisition of Logicor, a European logistics company then owned by the renowned investment company of Blackstone, in November 2017. This was by then the largest deal for a Chinese company to acquire a logistics asset in Europe.

To facilitate the deal, BOC led a consortium to grant a syndicated loan of 6.8 billion euros ($7.19 billion) to China Investment Corporation. That was the largest syndicate loan from the Asia-Pacific region in 2017.

This BOC-backed deal was included in the list of achievements announced by the 2019 Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.