Dbs Securities To Beef Up Local Operations

DBS Securities, the wholly-owned stock broking arm of the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS Bank), has decided to strengthen its India operations. The bank is firming up plans to set up an asset management company (AMC) in the country.

The brokering operations in India will also be widened, with the acquisition of a membership card of the Bombay Stock Exchange. "We are in the process of negotiations for a BSE membership. Once we receive the membership, we will be commence operations in Mumbai," a top DBS official said.

DBS has a strong presence in asset management across the Asian markets. Currently, DBS Bank has an AMC at Singapore under the name DBS Asset Management Ltd (DBSAM).

 

Each of the six top-ranking Singapore Unit Trusts in 1996, according to a survey conducted by global outfit Micropal, were managed by DBS Bank. The Shenton Asia Pacific Fund, managed by DBS, won a 'Fund of the Year' award at the Moneyworld exhibition in 1996.

The DBS decision to strengthen its India operations has come at a time when most foreign broking houses and investment banks are finding their Indian operations unviable and moving in for strategic shifts out of equity operations.

DBS Securities, which commenced operations in India in June 1997, has kept a low-profile over the years.

DBS Securities (India), with Harold Yeo as the country-head, is purely into the stock broking business. It has memberships on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE).

It also has a card on the Bangalore Stock Exchange (BgSE) which is currently inactive. Sources said that the BgSE card would be activated once the Indian Stock Exchanges Services Corpor-ation (ISESC) becomes operational.

The broking activities are operated from Delhi where the sales and research team is based.

The Mumbai office primarily deals with the settlement process and has a sales support team.

"Presently, we are purely into institutional business. But we will also consider getting into retail business at a later date," said the DBS official.

DBS is the largest bank in Singapore in terms of shareholders funds and is among the top ten banks in Asia as per a EuroMoney poll.

DBS Securities' operations are spread across southeast Asia with memberships on exchanges in Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong Sri Lanka, Philippines and Indonesia.

The range of services offered by DBS Securities includes block trading, underwriting, placement of share, nominee and securities custody service, corporate and economic research reports.