HONG KONG (Reuters) - Bank of East Asia Ltd <0023.HK>, a family-run Hong Kong lender, rejected a call by activist investor Elliott Management Corp to put the bank up for sale, saying the challenging economic and business environment would bode ill for such a process.
Elliott, which owns an about 7 percent stake in Bank of East Asia (BEA), had earlier this month heaped pressure on the bank to sell itself, saying its executives had serially mismanaged the business, leading to weak performance and poor returns for minority shareholders.
BEA, which has a $7.6 billion market value and is one of the last remaining family-run banks in Hong Kong, said on Monday it would carry out a strategic review of its share register business Tricor Holdings Ltd, of which it owns about 76 percent. The rest of that business is owned by NWS Holdings.
"The management team and the board remain committed to maximizing shareholder value and believe that the best way to achieve this in the current environment is to focus on execution and improving the bank's business," the company added in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
BEA also reported a 16.8 percent dropped in its full year net profit of HK$5.64 billion ($724.6 million).
BEA shares were up 3.1 percent by mid-day break, while the benchmark Hang Seng share index <.HSI> was up 2.7 percent.
BEA counts Spain's CaixaBank and Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc as its other top shareholders.
(Reporting by Denny Thomas; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
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