The major shareholder of Bank of Suzhou has significant confidence in the company's assets.

The latest announcement shows that the major shareholder of Bank of Suzhou, Guofaq Group, has reached a cumulative change in equity of 5% for its holdings in Bank of Suzhou. This triggers relevant disclosure obligations.

This also brings Guofaq Group's next shareholding plan to light.

Continuously increasing shareholding by 5 percentage points.

According to the announcement, Bank of Suzhou received a "Notice of Changes in Shareholder Equity" and a "Detailed Report on Changes in Shareholder Equity" from Suzhou International Development Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guofaq Group") on January 8, 2025.

The relevant report shows that from August 2, 2019, to January 8, 2025, Guofaq Group's ownership of shares in Bank of Suzhou increased from 9% to 14% due to block trades, transfers without consideration, centralized bidding increases, passive dilution from Convertible Bonds conversion, and other reasons, resulting in a cumulative change in equity of 5%.

In other words, in the six months prior to this announcement, Guofaq Group has cumulatively increased its holdings in Bank of Suzhou by 0.1036 billion shares.

The subsequent Shareholding plan is unveiled.

Moreover, the Bank Of Suzhou has also announced a brand new Shareholding plan.

The announcement shows that Guofa Group plans to increase its Shareholding by no less than 0.3 billion yuan within six months starting from January 14, 2025, through the trading system of the Shenzhen Exchange using centralized bidding or by purchasing Convertible Bonds to convert into stocks.

The announcement also stated that the entity increasing its Shareholding will not reduce the shares acquired in this Shareholding plan within six months after its completion.

It is reported that Guofa Group's reason for increasing its Shareholding is "based on confidence in the future development prospects of the bank and recognition of the long-term investment value." The company promises that during the implementation period of the Shareholding plan and within the statutory period, it will not reduce the shares held in the Bank Of Suzhou and will complete the Shareholding plan during the above-mentioned implementation period.

Significant increase in recent years.

In the past year, the share price of Bank Of Suzhou has continued to rise under the influence of multiple factors.

This also leads to its Convertible Bonds nearing the conditions for redemption.

It is reported that from December 12, 2024, to January 8, 2025, out of 19 trading days for Bank Of Suzhou Stocks, there have been 10 trading days where the closing price was no less than 130% of the current conversion price of "Bank Of Suzhou Convertible Bonds" at 6.19 yuan/share, which is 8.05 yuan/share. If, in the next 11 trading days, the closing price of Bank Of Suzhou Stocks is no less than 8.05 yuan/share for 5 trading days, it may trigger the conditional redemption clause of "Bank Of Suzhou Convertible Bonds."

Once the relevant conditions are met, according to the provisions in the "Prospectus for the Public Offering of A-shares Convertible Bonds by Bank Of Suzhou Co., Ltd." (hereinafter referred to as the "Prospectus"), the bank has the right to decide to redeem all or part of the unconverted "Bank Of Suzhou Convertible Bonds" at the price of the bond face value plus the interest accrued during the period.