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Download The sale of a stake in China Construction Bank held by Bank of America Corp was prompted by the latter's capital shortage rather than concerns over the Chinese bank’s profitability, said its spokesperson on Wednesday, one day after the US bank cleared 2 billion Hong Kong-listed shares of CCB for about HK$11.7 billion ($1.47 billion). Bank of America told CCB that it has been downsizing the Chinese bank's H-shares to pump up its assets because of stricter requirements on capital quality by US banking regulators, said the spokesperson. The two banks will continue their partnership until 2016, based on a strategic agreement renewed in 2011. The American bank has been reducing its shares in CCB since 2009, gaining nearly HK$210 billion, 1.2 times its purchase costs. CCB's H-shares fell by 1.35 percent at the close of trading Wednesday. Other major commercial banks were hardly affected by the sell-out. Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of Communications Co saw increases of 0.29 percent, 0.58 percent and 0.19 percent, respectively. Bank of America's move did not come as a surprise, said Guo Tianyong, a professor at Central University of Finance and Economics. "Foreign capital in China's banking sector has been receding for quite a while because the economic slowdown and financial reforms have hampered the growth potential of China's State-backed banks." | 
