BOC to turn Macau Branch to subsidiary with MOP13b investment

The Bank of China (BOC), the parent company of Bank of China, Macau Branch, has received the greenlight from the authorities in mainland China and the Macau SAR to open a subsidiary in Macau.
A total of MOP13 billion will be invested to facilitate the move, the BOC announced in a filing dated August 23, 2021.
It will not involve external financing as all funds will be from the bank’s reserves, the same filing stated.
The name of the new company will be Bank of China (Macau) Limited, similar to its counterpart in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong company actualized the public listing of the firm.
When inaugurated, the BOC (Macau) Ltd. will be a Tier-1 fully owned subsidiary of the mainland banking giant.
In the filing, the BOC explained that this investment is “a prominent move to serve the national strategy, support the construction of the Greater Bay Area, satisfy the needs of the Macau SAR in developing financial services with special characteristics.”
According to the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, a subsidiary is an independent legal entity with a separate name, charter and structure. It operates on its own finances and manages its own debts. A parent company also indirectly controls its subsidiaries usually by appointing the Board of Directors.
In a reply to the Times on the prospects of the bank, the BOC, Macau Branch noted that both the Macau branch and the Macau subsidiary will be “operating entities” in Macau. It stressed that there will be no impact on customer experience and service efficiency.
“In the future, the new subsidiary and the existing Macau Branch will fully utilize the advantages from unification to further deepen wealth financing, consumption financing, inter-jurisdictional financing, green financing and other aspects of services […] to assist in the economic and social stability of Macau,” the BOC, Macau Branch noted in its reply. AL