HSBC India expects to witness a significant jump in business once it completes the acquisition of Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) retail and commercial banking businesses in the country, a top bank official said today.
"Our main focus is the acquisition of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group's (RBS) retail and commercial banking businesses in India. We can successfully close our transactions and that will be a significant boost to our business here," HSBC India CEO Stuart Davis told PTI on the sidelines of a conference here today.
HSBC, through its wholly-owned subsidiary The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, had agreed to acquire RBS' retail and commercial banking businesses in India, which held portfolios with a gross asset value of $1.8 billion as of March 31, 2010.
The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to be concluded in the first half of 2011.
"We are looking at growing our branch network in India. We see a strong opportunity for growth and we expect to grow very strongly in the next 5-10 years," Davis said.
The bank expects to see strong growth in commercial and corporate loan offtake at the current base rate, he said.
Credit offtake is a little slow at present, but with investment in infrastructure projects set to pick up in the next few months, "we expect a strong loan demand," he added.
Welcoming the RBI's decision to issue new licenses to private sector banks, Davis said the additional competition is welcome.
India is expected to register strong GDP growth over the next five years and a high level of banking penetration and new services will be needed to help drive growth further.
"There are certainly more opportunities for new banks," Davis said.
