Leading financial firm China CITIC Group (CITIC) is bidding for a stake in Bear Stearns, one of Wall Street's top investment banks, top officials said yesterday in Beijing.

Jiang Dingzhi, vice-chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and Chang Zhenming, president of CITIC Group, said the group is keen on a stake in the U.S. bank.

Neither Jiang, speaking on the sidelines of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) 17th National Congress on efforts by Chinese financial companies to expand abroad, nor Chang would reveal any more details such as the size of the stake or the price.

Bear Stearns ranked 7th among Wall Street investment banks by revenue before it suffered the hardest from the U.S. subprime credit crisis, which has caused its market value to drop as much as 25 percent this year to 17.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, is also interested in buying a stake in Bear Stearns, the New York Times reported on Sept. 26. Other potential investors are Bank of America Corp, Wachovia Corp and China Construction Bank.

"At the moment, Bear Stearns is a bargain," Arthur Lau of JF Asset Management in Hong Kong told Bloomberg. For China, it's important to have a platform to learn more about investment banking, he said.

Wu Yonggang, an analyst with Shanghai-based Guotai Junan Securities, said buying a stake in Bear Stearns will help CITIC connect the booming domestic capital market with the United States.

CITIC owns 26 percent of CITIC Securities, the Chinese brokerage whose market value has more than quadrupled this year to 50 billion dollars, making it Asia's largest securities firm. The company also controls 62 percent of China CITIC Bank Corp, which raised 5.95 billion dollars in a Hong Kong initial share sale in May.

"By expanding overseas, CITIC will gain valuable experience in a leading investment bank," Wu said.

"But Chinese companies are not familiar with the overseas market or international merger and acquisition issues, and that could be a disadvantage, " he warned.

China Minsheng Banking Corp, the mainland's first privately owned bank, said earlier this month said it may buy a stake in UCBH Holdings Inc, the biggest bank serving the Chinese community in the United States.