China and Bear Stearns

Business Wire reports:

NEW YORK & BEIJING–(BUSINESS WIRE)—-The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. (NYSE:BSC) and CITIC Securities Co., Limited (SSE:600030), with unanimous approval from their respective Boards of Directors, today announced an agreement in principle to establish a comprehensive strategic alliance. This alliance will include sharing management expertise and technology to develop new capital markets products and businesses in China, establishing an exclusive joint venture combining the existing businesses of both companies in the rest of Asia, and cross-investments of approximately $1 billion in each firm by the other. The alliance will bring together Bear Stearns’ capital markets expertise globally and market leading analytics with CITIC Securities’ vast resources and extensive business network to better serve clients worldwide.

The joint venture will provide a wide range of capital markets services, including cross-border mergers and acquisitions advisory, international equity and fixed income capital markets with a particular focus on international offerings of Chinese companies, venture capital and private equity, asset management, and equity and fixed income services. The joint venture will serve as a conduit for international companies seeking access to Asian capital markets and for Chinese entrepreneurs, corporations and state-owned enterprises looking to access capital or invest outside of the region.

As you know I have picked on the stock price of Bear Stearns as a barometer of who gets punished in the derivative markets, fair or not.

Is this venture a successful rebound of the market, or something else? Not knowing the specifics makes an answer purely conjectural, but I do wonder if Bear Strearns learned anything from the loss of two of its funds, or whether this merely lets them go global and sovereign?