August 11, 2006--- HSI Services announced that China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB, stock code: 939) will become a constituent of Hang Seng Index (HIS) on 11 September. CCB is the first H-share to join HIS, with the weighting of 2.16%.
　

CCB’s Chairman Mr. Guo Shuqing said, “ CCB joined Hang Seng China Enterprises Index and will become the first H-share to join Hang Seng Index just within one year. This fully indicates the confidence of the capital market over CCB’s changes as well as the industry’s prospect. It is a great honor for us. And on this occasion, we want to express our many thanks to our investors and HIS Services for their long-term support. As a blue chip corporation, CCB will continue to honor its commitments to improve its corporate governance, strengthen risk management, speed up business and product innovation, and try its best to provide best services to customers and give investors more return.”

Background:

China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB) joined Hang Seng China Enterprises Index in this March and at that time, it became a constituent of Hang Seng 50 (including Hang Seng Mainland 25).

HSI Services Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hang Seng Bank and is responsible for compiling, publishing and managing the Hang Seng Index, Hang Seng Composite Index Series, and Hang Seng Freefloat Index Series, etc. it announced changes of the calculation methodology of H-shares Index and its consideration of adding qualified H-share companies into Hang Seng Index on June 30, 2006. Then today, it announced its constituent list of Hang Seng Index.

CCB’s Profile
China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB, Stock Code:939) was successfully listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited on 27 October 2005, the first public listing of China’s four largest state-owned commercial banks in the overseas market. CCB provides a comprehensive range of commercial banking products and services, and its principal business activities consist of corporate banking, personal banking and treasury operations. CCB is among the market leaders in China in a number of products and services: the second largest lender of infrastructure loans; one of major lenders in terms of residential mortgage products; and the second largest issuer of bank cards. CCB has an extensive customer base, with the network of 14 thousand branch outlets throughout the whole country. Customers can access CCB’s services through various channels such as wealth management centers, electronic banking, and self-service banking centers. CCB has always been the leader in terms of comprehensive competitiveness, marketing and promotion, risk management and control and profitability compared with other Chinese banks. By the end of 2005, CCB had RMB 4,585.7 billion in total assets and RMB 47. 096 billion in net profit, with return on average assets of 1.11%, return on average equity of 21.59%, capital adequacy ratio of 13.57%, and non-performing loan ratio of 3.84%. CCB was named by The Banker magazine as the “Bank of the Year” in China in 2005. According to The Banker magazine, CCB was rated 11th among Top 1000 World Banks and ranked the No. 1 on the list of top 100 China’s bank. According to the Hong Kong-based financial journal, Asiaweek, CCB was rated 7th among Top 300 Asian Banks released, and rewarded as the highest net interest income and net profit, and the “most profitable bank in Asia”.  And CCB also was named by FinanceAsia of Hong Kong as Best Managed Company, Best Commitment to Strong Dividends and Best Corporate Governance.