China's Citic, AIbank to lend Haidilao restaurants 2.1 billion yuan
BEIJING, Feb 21 (Reuters) - China's Citic Bank and AIBank will lend 2.1 billion yuan ($298.77 million) to hotpot chain Haidilao International to help it manage the plunge in demand during the coronavirus outbreak, according to a statement on AIBank's official WeChat account on Friday.
AIBank is a digital bank jointly owned by Citic Bank Corp Ltd and search engine company Baidu.
The banks have already issued 810 million yuan to the restaurant chain, said the statement.
($1 = 7.0289 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Sophie Yu, Leng Cheng and Dominique Patton; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)