Rich southern belle falls for roguish charmer, marries another, but isn’t above coming back for the odd clinch. Bank of America, which helped finance the epic Gone with the Wind, has stolen its plot. The Charlotte- based bank paid $3bn for a 9 per cent stake in China Construction Bank three years ago, when subprime was barely in the lexicon and China was Shangri-La. Now, having agreed to buy Merrill Lynch and accept Yankee dollars from the troubled asset relief programme to bolster its balance sheet, BofA is stumping up $7bn to take its CCB stake past 19 per cent.

Headstrong? CCB lifted pre-tax profits by 30 per cent year on year to $16bn in the nine months through September, but its charms are fading. Its Hong Kong-listed shares are trading at less than half last year’s peak. Loan growth is slowing and losses from investment portfolios are mounting. Bad loans, already 2.2 per cent of the loan book, will surely rise given its exposure to vulnerable sectors. Manufacturing and real estate, which comprise almost one-third of corporate loans, are cases in point. Some 15 per cent of the bank’s lending is in the worst-hit Pearl River Delta region in the south.