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.