CIMB THAI banks on Asean transactions
CIMB THAI Bank has brought in a new investment-banking team of executives to strengthen its corporate customer activities in Asean, in a move which it expects will enable cross-border transactions this year to reach 50 per cent of total income in the bank
The bank has appointed Wirach Morakotkarn, former acting chief executive officer at KTB Advisory, as its new executive vice president, Investment Banking Group.
He said CIMB Thai Bank’s investment-banking team had set targets to help Thai clients grow in Asean, and that the resources that would help the team achieve these targets were 20 expert investment bankers and universal services for corporate clients – namely financial services, consultancy and cash management.
Another factor is the strength of the CIMB franchise, with the Malaysia-based group having more than 1,000 branches in 17 countries worldwide serving clients in the corporate, SME and retail segments and providing Islamic banking, asset management, wealth management and bancassurance services, he said.
All these factors will help the operation run smoothly and enable us to provide services the clients need, he added.
“With the recruitment and franchise established, we declare we are ready to go full throttle in investment-banking business. With deals in the pipeline, we target jump-starting our income by highlighting that cross-border transactions will account for over 50 per cent of total income in 2016,” Wirach said.
CIMB Thai Bank’s investment-banking deals in the pipeline during 2016-2017 include over 20 initial public offerings and deals related to the equity capital market, worth Bt30 billion, of which five are real-estate investment deals with a combined value of Bt5 billion.
More than 10 merger and acquisition deals worth Bt30 billion and over 40 deals worth Bt50 billion related to the debt capital market are also in the works, giving the Thai bank over 60 deals valued at more than Bt110 billion in total, excluding transactions related to loans, project finance and financial advisory in Asean, the executive vice president said.
Pornchai Padmindra, CIMB Thai Bank’s senior executive vice president, Wholesale Banking Group, said that thanks to the strong Asean network of CIMB Group and the readiness of the team at CIMB Thai Bank, as well as corporate clients that are ready to expand and broaden their investment to new markets overseas, cross-border transactions would grow substantially this year.
The highlight of Wholesale Banking Group’s performance last year was the volume of loans and transactions related to cross-border deals, which more than doubled, year on year, he said, adding that most of these transactions were from the expansion of Thai companies’ offshore investment.
