Ing Baring Beats Hasty Retreat From India, Pak

ING Baring Securities, the brokerage arm of ING Barings, has decided to pull out of equities/debt, securities trading, global depository receipt mandates, and sales and research operations in India and Pakistan.

Speaking to Business Standard from Hong Kong yesterday, ING Barings official spokesperson, Edward Naylor, confirmed the move. A staff of 23, involved in equities, research and sales at Mumbais ING Baring office have been axed.

Corporate finance activity will be undisturbed, although it will be absorbed into ING Bank, sources said. All research on India and Pakistan will now take place in Hong Kong.

The decision to remove the physical presence from India is largely due to the fact that we have not had profitable operations at the Indian capital markets since we made our presence in 1994, Naylor said. The brokerage had suffered losses of Rs 3.91 crore till December 1996, within two years of starting India operations.

 

Naylor said ING Baring began restructuring yesterday in order to focus on centres in which it has a strong presence. Thus, while Baring will pull out of India and Pakistan, it will step up activities in North Asia, Japan (where it is among the top 10 brokerages), Korea and China. The market has been difficult in Asia and, thus, the bank has decided to focus on its traditional strengths, he said.

Naylor said a decision on ING Barings properties in Mumbai, the office infrastructure and its stock exchange membership cards would be taken soon. ING Baring Securities (India) had acquired a BSE brokerage card for Rs 4.12 crore in December 1995. In addition, a sum of Rs 2.16 crore is lying with the BSE and NSE as deposits. It started broking operations on February 5, 1995, at both exchanges.

Reuters adds:

ING Barings, the investment banking arm of Dutch financial services company Internationale Nederlanden Groep, yesterday confirmed it would cut around 200 jobs from its emerging markets equities operations. A spokesman said cuts would be mostly in the LatAm equities business, which will be reorganised on sectoral lines and run from New York.

In Karachi, the banks Pakis-tan country manager, Graham Willis, said all 38 employees in Pakistan would be laid off.