STANDARD Chartered Plc, the United Kingdom's third-biggest bank by market value, has said it would consider buying Royal Bank of Scotland's assets in Asia, expanding in a region where it already makes more than three quarters of its profit.
"We will look at opportunities," Standard Chartered Chief Financial Officer Richard Meddings said in an interview yesterday with Bloomberg News. "If RBS's strategy involves divestments in areas where we are expanding, we would certainly look. We will be disciplined."
Standard Chartered, with headquarters in London, takes in more money in customer deposits than it lends out, avoiding the funding strain that led banks, including RBS, to participate in a 37-billion-pound (US$64 billion) government bailout.
While the bank has spent more than US$2.7 billion on takeovers since 2006 in Asian markets, Standard Chartered's primary focus is growth without acquisitions, Meddings said.
RBS's new Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hester said on October 13 that there are "no sacred cows" and the bank might consider selling assets that his predecessor, Fred Goodwin, had acquired. RBS bought the Asian and investment-banking units of Amsterdam-based ABN Amro Holding NV for US$19 billion last year.
Meddings, 50, said it was "disappointing" that Standard Chartered failed in its bid last month to buy Asian assets owned by Lehman Brothers. Nomura Holdings, Japan's biggest securities firm, said on October 14 it had mostly completed the purchase of the Asia-Pacific unit of Lehman.