UK's Standard Chartered, the largest foreign bank in India, is being courted by three of China's state-run banks for a significant stake, but the British banking giant termed media reports to this effect as speculative.However, the deal, if it goes through, has the potential to give the Chinese government a significant presence in the Indian banking space, where StanChart has the biggest branch network among overseas banks.According to separate reports today in The Times and Financial Times dailies, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China (BoC) and China Construction Bank (CCB) have evinced interest in purchasing a 17% stake in the UK bank held by Singapore government's investment arm Temasek.When asked for comments on the development, Tim Baxter, external communications head, StanChart told PTI: "This is speculation from an unnamed source and we do not comment on market rumours."StanChart has 81 branches in India with licences to open two more branches. Besides, it reached an agreement in September to acquire $860 million US-based American Express Bank, which also has seven branches in India. Together, these 90 branches account for the bulk of total 258 branches of 29 foreign banks in India as of September 2006.The media reports said that the three Chinese banks have touched base with Temasek, the largest shareholder in the British bank that acquired an 11.5% stake in 2006 and later increased it to over 17%.
