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Deccan Herald » Business » Detailed Story
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LOOKING AT ACQUISITIONS
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Standard Chartered plans to expand in India
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Seoul, reuters:
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Standard Chartered Plc. is interested in expanding in India, but may opt to go it alone rather than through acquisitions, top executives at the Asia-focused bank said on Tuesday.
The London-based bank, which recently closed a $3.3 billion deal to buy South Korea’s seventh-largest bank, also pointed to opportunities in consumer finance and loans to small firms in Korea, now its second-biggest market after Hong Kong.
“We will expand consumer banking in India, but not necessarily via acquisition but it may well be organically,” Mervyn Davies, Standard Chartered group chief executive, told a news conference a few days after closing a deal to buy Korea First Bank.
“We already have a large bank in India. We don’t need to buy a big bank in India,” added Kai Nargolwala, Standard Chartered group executive director.
But Davies said on the sidelines of the conference that he was not ruling out an acquisition in the booming Indian market, one of its key growing markets, alongside China.
The comments came after an executive at the Asia-focused bank has said in February it was looking to make acquisitions in India to seek sub-prime businesses there.
India’s banking business is buoyant as its middle class grows supported by economic expansion of nearly 7 per cent and a new group of consumers for cars and other pricey items emerge.
Standard Chartered Group has 75 branches in India.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2005
