IBM is to join a consortium led by Citigroup that is bidding $3 billion for control of China's Guangdong Development Bank (GDB), according to reports.
IBM Global Financing, a unit of the world's largest technology services company, will take a stake of up to 5 per cent in the troubled southern Chinese lender if the Citigroup bid was successful, sources said.
Citigroup and France's Société Générale have been locked in a takeover battle for more than a year, with sources saying both sides are bidding about $3 billion for 85 percent of GDB.
IBM would join a consortium that the sources said included top life insurer China Life Insurance Co.
Citigroup and its wholly owned Associates First Capital arm would take a combined stake slightly larger than that of China Life to become GDB's largest individual shareholder, one banker involved with the bid said.
China, which is set to open its banking sector fully to foreign competition under WTO obligations next month, has attracted nearly $21 billion in financial services industry investments since 2001, according to Boston Consulting Group.