Friday, October 03, 2008

No blitzkrieg this

Barclays must tread carefully

Can the British bull dog dance the Russian ballet? Barclays Bank, Britain’s third largest bank sure seems to think so, as it enters into a strategic move for expansion in emerging markets by buying up Russia’s Expobank.

Sure enough, it fell flat for its last bidding contest for ABN Amro Holding NV last year (offered $99 billion but lost to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.), but Barclays is not giving up for sure! It has oozed out a whopping $745 million for Expobank, about four times its book value of $186 million, surely a red signal to analysts. Frits Seegers, Chief Executive, Global Retail and Commercial Banking, Barclays, prophesises, “Expobank’s existing relationships and infrastructure create the ideal platform for us to be one of the leading retail and commercial banks in Russia.” Expobank has assets of $1.24 billions with 32 branches in western Russia, and one of the largest networks of ATMs in Moscow. Moreover, Russia’s economic growth at 8.1% last year is much more promising than UK, with a meagre 2.9% growth, not to mention the collapse of the market for credit-related securities....Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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