China will open opportunities to buy into its five major banks, Australian officials disclosed over the weekend.
"What they are saying is that they are going to allow larger institutional stakes," Martin Parkinson said, in a report in the Financial Review.
Goldman Sachs spent $US2.58 billion on a 4.9 per cent stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in April 2006 before it listed in Hong Kong. Goldman gradually sold down its stake after 2009.
Australian billionaire Kerry Stokes bought a $US250 million stake in the Agriculture Bank of China before its listing in June 2010.