CIMB bolsters India-Asean business flow

CIMB will be looking at investment opportunities for Malaysian and Asean companies to invest in India and vice-versa.

This was revealed by CIMB group chief executive officer, Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, who pointed out that the biggest area of opportunity his group sees in India is its infrastructure.

To strengthen its commitment in India, CIMB signed a business cooperation agreement with Kotak and established a representative office in Mumbai.

"Our partnership with Kotak is an important strategic move for CIMB Group. The DNA and associated fit between our two organisations are obvious and given the expected business flows between India and Asean, I think this partnership will prove a great success," he said.

The framework would pave way for both parties to explore opportunities arising from cross border investments and trade flows, focusing on selected countries in the India-Asean corridor.

Besides, it would also cover merger and acquisition advisory, trade finance and remittance as well.

Uday Kotak, executive vice chairman/managing director of Kotak, said the collaboration was a significant opportunity for two financial conglomerates to leverage on their strengths to serve respective customers better in the Indo-Asean corridor across a range of financial services.

Asean is emerging as a key destination for India's outward foreign direct investment, amounting to US$12 billion, or 27 per cent of overall investments of US$43.9 billion or RM131.7 billion in 2010-11.

CIMB Mumbai office was launched by Malaysian High Commissioner to India, Datuk Tan Seng Sung.

The full story is available at Bernama News.