CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, Southeast Asia’s top-ranked investment bank over the past three years, said it may start broking operations in India and South Korea after buying most of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s Asian investment banking assets.

The Malaysian lender may acquire existing broking licenses or apply for new ones in both countries, Nazir Razak, CIMB’s chief executive officer, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, after unveiling a 14 percent jump in second-quarter earnings. It’s still in talks to buy a 50 percent stake in Australian brokerage RBS Morgans, he said.

“The whole idea is to build a comprehensive Asia-Pacific stockbroking and investment banking network,” Nazir said. “India and Korea are essential to such a network. We feel that we must be in both markets.”

The Kuala Lumpur-based lender has spent about US$2.3 billion on 19 acquisitions since Nazir became CEO in 2006, including the purchase announced in June of a 60 percent stake in the Philippines’s Bank of Commerce. The RBS deal allowed CIMB to absorb or buy investment banking and broking operations in markets including Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand.

Net income climbed to RM1.11 billion (US$354 million), or 14.9 sen per share, in the three months ended June, up from 970 million ringgit, or 13.1 sen, during the same period a year earlier, according to a Kuala Lumpur exchange filing yesterday. Even so, the group cut its dividend to 5 sen per share from 12 sen a year ago.

 

- Bloomberg

 

 

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