Bzw Gives Way To Barclays Capital
To complete the restructuring plan of the Barclays Banks investment banking activities, the BZW entity will now cease to exist and Barclays Capital will become operational as the new 100 per cent subsidiary of the bank.
Barclays Capital will focus on the full array of debt, lending and risk management products - from project finance advisory services and debt capital markets/ money market operations, derivatives trading to corporate finance, short and medium term financing and trading and placing of bonds.
In India, of the 90-odd staff which formed the initial BZW team in 1993-94, at least 65-70 will be retained in the new entity, Barclays Capital. This will be marketed as the new investment banking arm of the bank, and will be headed by Ajay Sondhi as the managing director, sources said.
The downsizing of operations, which has been on at BZW over the past few months, will affect only the equity research operations, covering a team of 18-20 persons.
Barclays Bank will retain two of its three offices in south Mumbai, the main office and the back-office (which looks at settlement operations for the bank). The BZW equity research office at Nariman Point, Maker Chamber VI, will be shortly sold off, sources said.
The need to completely wind up equity operations across Indian/Asian markets arose as the much expected ANZ Grindlays deal to buy-out the equity operations of BZW did not materialise. There was a reasonable period of time awarded by the bank for the deal to come through. However, with no concrete advancement in the deal by early January 1998, the board of Barclays Bank felt it did not meet the time schedule...thus no fresh buyers would be looked at, a source said.
According to sources, CS First Boston has bought out the equity operations in Singapore, a part of the Hong Kong operations and Taiwan. BZW will now wind up its equity presence in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Greater China.
Barclays Capital, internationally, has been awarded a AA rating by global agencies and has access to $350 billion through the balance-sheets of Barclays Bank.