Silicon Valley Bank exits China joint venture, local partner takes full control

(This Aug. 31 story has been corrected to clarify Silicon Valley Bank exited its China join venture, not that it was bought out by a local partner, in the headline and paragraph 3)

BEIJING (Reuters) – Silicon Valley Bank’s Chinese joint venture will become a wholly owned unit of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, following approval to change its name to Shanghai Innovation Bank, a Chinese financial regulator said late on Friday.

Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) collapse last year was one of the largest in U.S. banking history and left its joint venture with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD) – SPD Silicon Valley – in the lurch after no buyers emerged to acquire SVB’s stake.

In a statement on Friday, the National Financial Regulatory Administration’s Shanghai branch said it had agreed the bank could adjust its shareholder ratios so that SPD holds 100% of the shares, effectively approving SVB exiting the joint venture.

The bank’s registered capital has been lowered to the equivalent of 1 billion yuan ($141 million) from 2 billion yuan.

($1 = 7.0900 Chinese yuan renminbi)