(Yicai Global) Nov. 15 -- Huarong Xiangjiang Bank has been renamed the Bank of Hunan Corporation after the Chinese regional commercial lender was granted approval to become central Hunan province’s first provincial-level urban bank after distancing itself from its debt-ridden former parent firm, China Huarong Asset Management.

It was agreed at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on Nov. 13 that the bank will change its name to Bank of Hunan, the Changsha-based lender said yesterday. This was the first shareholders’ meeting since China Huarong put its majority stake of 40.53 percent up for sale in April.

Huarong Xiangjiang Bank, which is now backed by Hunan Caixin Financial Holding Group with 40.48 percent equity, also appointed a new president, Zhou Hui, who also serves as deputy director general of the Hunan Local Financial Supervision and Administration. Central Huijin Investment is the lender’s second biggest shareholder with a 20 percent stake.

The bank might try to go public now that it has been upgraded to a provincial-level urban lender in Hunan, a province that boasts a vast population. But Huarong Xiangjiang Bank is still not as financially robust as the province’s only publicly-traded lender, the Bank of Changsha.

As of the end of September, Huarong Xiangjiang had half the assets of the Bank of Changsha at CNY448.2 billion (USD63.6 billion). And while it raked in net profit of CNY2.4 billion (USD340.8 million) in the first three quarters and revenue of CNY17.3 billion (USD2.5 billion), the Bank of Changsha achieved net profit of CNY5.4 billion on the same revenue.

China Huarong, one of the country’s four largest state-owned asset managers, set up Huarong Xiangjiang Bank in 2010 through the merger of a number of commercial banks in Hunan. But it was forced into a sale of assets after losing CNY102.9 billion (USD14.6 billion) in 2020, sending it into a financial crisis.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor