Citic Securities unsure about Bear Stearns deal

Citic Securities Co<600030>, China's largest brokerage by earnings said late Sunday it was unsure about whether it will finally buy into U.S. investment bank Bear Stearns Cos after Bear's financial crisis triggered a bailout plan.

"We haven't signed any formal agreement, we haven't paid any money and we can't guarantee reaching a final agreement in the future," the firm said in a statement.

Citic Securities said it will closely monitor the impact from the U.S. subprime crisis and conduct an overall evaluation of the deal on which the direction of the cooperation between the two sides will be set.

The two said last October that Citic Securities would take a 6% stake in Bear Stearns for US$1 billion, while Bear Stearns would take a 2% stake in Citic Securities by spending US$1 billion.

Citic Securities has just released its 2007 earnings reports, saying that its net profit more than quintupled from a year earlier thanks to the bull market.