Standard Chartered not ruling out China acquisition but focus on organic growth |
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Tue, 27 Feb 2007 11:40
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HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - Standard Chartered Plc is not ruling out the possibility of buying a minority stake in a financial institutional in China, but will focus mainly on pursuing growth organically on the mainland and other parts of the world, group chairman Mervyn Davies said.Standard Chartered may make an acquisition if the acquired entity would create value for the group, Davies said at a press briefing, responding to a question on whether the group is interested in buying a stake in China Everbright Bank.'Our focus is on organic growth, although we are not ruling out an acquisition,' he said.Group executive director Kai Nargolwala said that as a matter of strategy, the group does not make acquisitions as a means to grow its business.'What we do is grow what we buy. Our key focus is organic growth,' he said.Nargolwala also said the group has no plans to list on the mainland exchanges.'We don't need to list and raise capital in China because we can (meet our) financing requirements from our own resources,' he said.He added that Standard Chartered plans to incorporate its businesses in China sometime this year, a move that would enable the group to launch yuan services for its Chinese clients.He said gross income from the group's China business in 2006 more than doubled to almost 300 mln usd from a year earlier, while profit grew almost three-fold.He did not give a figure for the bank's profit in China last year.Nargolwala also said the group will accelerate its investment on the mainland and expects to expand its operation to about 40 locations by the end of 2007.The group expanded its network on the mainland to 22 locations in 14 cities last year.jun.concepcion@xfn.comjc/rl/net
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Standard Chartered takes strategic stake in China's Everbright Bank - report 