National Bank of Abu Dhabi launches India operations

Abu Dhabi, Nov 3 (IANS/WAM) The National Bank of Abu Dhabi on Tuesday launched banking operations in India to enhance the bank's ability to service corporate and financial clients across the country and provide more capital to businesses in the growing Indian market.

The India branch, located in Mumbai, will provide wholesale banking services covering areas of debt origination and distribution, project finance, trade finance and asset finance.

The branch will offer expert advice in each of NBAD's five key industrial sectors: energy, real estate, financial, transport and aviation, and retail.

"Setting up in India is an important milestone in NBAD's expansion across the West-East Corridor, and demonstrates the UAE's strengthening ties with its second largest trading partner," Alex Thursby, Group CEO, NBAD, said.

"The size of the economy, along with its rapidly growing consumer class, make India a vitally important market to our clients and to NBAD. The Indian government and businesses recognise that growth will come from further investment in infrastructure where the level of investment required over the next three years is over $1 trillion. NBAD is committed to facilitating the flow of capital into and from India through its network across the West-East Corridor."

NBAD has been granted a full banking licence by the Reserve Bank of India. The opening of the branch comes as NBAD completed the migration of an Indian corporate loan portfolio worth around $900 million from Royal Bank of Scotland.

Rajeev Pant, Regional CEO for South Asia, NBAD, said: "Local and international banks have an important role to play alongside the Indian government in setting in motion public-private partnerships and reviving stalled projects to meet India's infrastructure development needs. NBAD is well positioned to facilitate investment towards infrastructure projects and contribute to India's future growth potential."

Following this launch, NBAD plans to develop its relationship with key Indian corporates, expand its value offering to include, not least, treasury services, and grow the portfolio significantly.

NBAD now has a presence in 18 countries around the world.

--IANS/WAM

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