Standard Chartered mulls RI as fifth core market
Standard Chartered mulls RI as fifth core market
BANGKOK (Reuters): British-based Standard Chartered Bank Plc
was is looking for opportunities to develop either Indonesia, the
Philippines, or Taiwan as its fifth core market in Asia,
David Proctor, head of corporate and institutional banking
Southeast Asia and India said despite its recent failure to buy
Indonesia's Bank Bali, Indonesia would continue to be a target
market for Standard Chartered.
"If there are other ways for us to expand in Indonesia, we are
always interested in exploring ways to do that," he said.
Proctor told Reuters the bank had dramatically changed its
orientation over the past five years and had embarked on an
aggressive expansion.
"One of the key elements that we are trying to focus on is
continuing to make some bold moves (in emerging markets)," he
said in an interview on a recent trip to Thailand.
Apart from the acquisition in Thailand's 67-branch Nakornthon
Bank, the bank had recently bought an 89 percent stake in
Lebanon's Metropolitan Bank and an export-credit financing
business from UBS AG, Proctor said.
"The new-styled Standard Chartered is very much projecting an
image of being very aggressive in expansion, very pro-active,
growing very rapidly, and we are not going to stop there."
Proctor said the bank would expand its presence in emerging
markets from Asia, Latin America to the Middle East.
In Asia, from where around 70 percent of the bank's total
assets and revenues came in 1999, Standard Chartered intended to
make Thailand as its fourth "core market" in Asia after Hong
Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.
"What we are really trying to do during this crisis is take
this window of opportunity to extend those core markets into
other markets," Proctor said. "Thailand would be viewed as the
fourth core market for us at this point."
Standard Chartered bought a 75 percent stake in Thailand's
Nakornthon Bank in September for $320 million and spent hundreds
of millions dollars on other acquisitions.
Proctor said
Commenting on the macroeconomic picture, Proctor said East
Asian economies had gone through the crisis at a different speed.
The South Korean economy had recovered rapidly, he said, while
he saw a "a good recovery level" in Thailand.
Indonesia had "a long way to go" before recovery and still had
"some uncertainties at the political level".
The Philippines, he said, was not as badly affected by the
crisis, but had not shown significant recovery, and Proctor
questioned the sustainability of Malaysia's strong growth.