HSBC Holdings, the European
bank, said it would buy part of an office tower in Shanghai to house its China
headquarters as it speeds up expansion in China.
HSBC agreed to buy naming rights and occupy 20 floors of one of the twin
towers of the Shanghai International Finance Center, to be completed by 2010,
from Sun Hung Kai Properties, HSBC said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock
Exchange.
The tower, a few blocks from the bank’s current headquarters, would be
renamed HSBC Building-Shanghai IFC. Stephen K. Green, the chairman of HSBC,
disclosed the deal at a news conference in Shanghai, but he declined to say how
much the bank had agreed to pay.