CIMB widens investment banking presence abroad

看来我要把CIMB放进我的watch list了。

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By June Ramlee

Published: 2012/11/29

CIMB Group Holdings Bhd is set to expand its investment banking presence by setting up operations in Seoul, Taipei and Mumbai, says group chief executive Datuk Seri Nazir Razak.



He said the banking institution expected to secure the licences by the next two to three months, to complement its current investment banking presence in 13 countries.

"CIMB has always gone contrary. We expanded, particularly in investment banking, at the time when other banks were shrinking their investment banking.

"We are going contrary again this time as we feel it is the right time to take opportunity of the slowdown in global markets to expand our investment-banking platform," he told reporters after launching the CIMB Wealth Advisors Bhd's (CWA) Private Retirement Scheme, held at a hotel here yesterday.

CIMB currently has investment banking presence in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, London, New York, Australia, China and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, on a separate matter, CWA acting chief executive Munirah Khairuddin said it expects its asset under management (AUM) to breach RM7 billion by the end of next year from the current RM6.1 billion.

The growth will be supported by the robust subscription growth of all its investment products.

"We also aim to grow our business by 40 per cent and increase our agency force to 7,000 consultants, from the current 5,000, by the end of 2013," she said.

CWA is a member of CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhd, which manages assets worth RM36 billion.

Munirah said with the newly launched private retirement scheme (PRS), the company aims to penetrate the growing small and medium enterprises (SME) market segment aggressively by offering an alternative retirement savings for business owners and their employees.

"Under the PRS scheme, employees can kick-start an additional retirement savings account from as low as RM100 a month, coupled with a maximum tax relief of RM3,000 per annum.

"We hope to be the market leader among SMEs and we target to achieve 20,000 PRS account sign-ups by next year, leveraging on our strong consultants network nationwide," she added.