StanChart IDR in March-April

StanChart Global CEO says the bank is waiting for the right market conditions.

Standard Chartered Bank, the third-largest bank in the UK by market value (mainly on account of its Asia operations), will make its debut on Indian stock exchanges in March-April next year.

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Stanchart Global CEO Peter Sands told a meeting of select mediapersons here that all the "wrinkles" had been sorted out and the bank was just waiting for the right market conditions. "The market conditions here look very good," he was quick to add.

The issue size is expected to be around Rs 5,000 crore, though Sands did not specify any figure.

Sands said the bank didn’t need the money, but was going ahead with the IDR issue — the first by any company — just to demonstrate its commitment to the Indian market and enhance its profile and position in India. "It also gives Indian investors an opportunity to participate in our remarkable progress," he said.

"We have more employees in India than in any other country. It’s one of our fastest growing markets. We see the listing as a symbol of our commitment to helping the development of Mumbai as a financial centre. The development of an IDR market will provide Indian investors more options to invest and is simply another step in the development of India’s overall capital markets," he said.

India is a key market for StanChart and is the second-largest contributor to the bank’s profits after Hong Kong. The bank was optimistic about expanding operations in the local market, Sands said.

Though headquartered in London, StanChart is very much an Asian bank. Around 71 per cent of its 2008 revenue originated in the region - a fact that prompted Sands to say that Stanchart was "more Indian than any other foreign bank operating in India".

Besides, India showed remarkable resilience during the global financial crisis, Sands said, complimenting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for being "very thoughtful" in navigating the domestic financial system during the global financial crisis.

Replying to queries about acquisition of smaller banks in India, Sands said the bank believed in controlling the entities it acquired for value addition. "Given the situation in India, we cannot control any bank by acquiring a minority stake. So, acquisitions doesn’t make sense," Sands said, adding the bank had been in talks with RBI on the issue.

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He said the economies in Asia needed to focus more on strengthening domestic consumption to make the development process sustainable rather than only thinking in terms of exporting their products to the US. "This is a challenge to China, India and most Asian economies," Sands said.

Last week, StanChart India had said that it would hire 3,000 people in India by the end of 2010, out of which 500 recruitments would be done in the last two months of 2009.

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