Ｂａｎｋ ｏｆ Ａｍｅｒｉｃａ Ｉｎｖｅｓｔｓ ＵＳ＄３ Ｂｉｌｌｉｏｎ ｉｎ Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ Ｂａｎｋ

Bank of America will buy ap-proximately nine percent ofthe stock of China Construc-tion Bank (CCB) for US$3 billion，with the option of increasing its stakein future years.

China's second largest bankCCB， and Bank of America reacheda definitive agreement， under which，Bank of America will make an initialpurchase of CCB shares from ChinaSAFE Investments Ltd. for US$2.5billion and an additional purchaseworth US$500 million at the time ofthe listing.

Bank of America will have a seaton CCB's board of directors. It alsohas the right to purchase additionalshares in the future to increase itsownership in CCB up to 19.9 percentover the next five-and-one-half years.

Guo Shuqing， Chairman of CCB，said， \"I firmly believe this is a win-win partnership. The most fundamen-tal and challenging task in transform-ing CCB is to establish a culture thatis customer centric and marketdriven.\"

\"This investment is aimed at cre-ating a long-term benefit by partneringwith the best positiond bank in China，\"said Kenneth D. Lewis， Bank ofAmerica chairman. \"Under our agree-ment， we will offer CCB the benefitof our experience in such areas as gov-emance， risk management， credit cardsand consumer banking.\"

As part of this strategic assistanceprogram， Bank of America will pro-vide approximately 50 personnel toadvise CCB in these key areas.

CCB is expected to list its shareson the Hong Kong Stock Exchangelater this year， becoming one of thetop four state-owned banks to gainsignificant public ownership.