There are always four banks in with a shout of winning the best bank in Africa award: Standard Chartered, Barclays, Citi and Standard Bank. While none of the other banks has done anything particularly wrong, one candidate stands out: South Africa’s Standard Bank. It has helped instigate the acquisition of a 20% stake in itself through a R36.7 billion ($5.5 billion) cash offer by ICBC, China’s biggest lender and the largest bank in the world by market capitalization. It is more of a marriage than a partnership, and suggests that China plans to be in Africa for the long run. It is the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese bank and the largest foreign investment in Africa. The deal was negotiated in...
