Japanse banks see India as land of rising sun

If you thought Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation shutting shop in India signalled a slowdown in Japanese banking activity in the country, then you are mistaken.

Quite contrary, in line with its peers in portfolio investment in the Indian equity market, Mizuho Corporate Bank of Japan has been successfully expanding its foothold in India, primarily leveraging on the Indo-Japanese trade relations.

It has not only made business for itself, but has also managed to convince almost 60-65 major Japanese corporates to set up manufacturing or marketing base in India.

Most of the Japanese corporates earlier used to focus only on China owing to cheap labour costs. Ken Ito, chief executive officer of Mizuho in India, said the number of corporates looking at India had gone up to almost 60-65 against five to six Japanese firms earlier.

The list of corporates includes big names in auto sectors such as Honda, Toyota and Yamaha, as well as those in home appliances, pharmaceuticals, communications.

While Nissan has already set up its base in India, the other new entrants include Japanese business conglomerate Mitsui Metal, Sanyo, and pharma major Eisai. Japanese Telecom major Nippon Telegraph (NTT) is also in the process of entering the Indian market.

For the India corporates, those who are actively involved in imports from Asian countries like Thailand and Singapore, the bank is offering derivative products including currency and interest rate swaps.

Loan syndications is major activity for the bank which it had pioneered two years back by aggressively buying the Indian corporate papers in the primary and secondary international bond market.

Ito said the bank's portfolio in loan syndications for Indian corporates has gone up to $600 million from $100-150 million two years back. It proposes to open a new branch and is on a hiring spree to recruit Indian professionals. Currently it has a capital base of Rs 150 crore.