World Business

Citi’s chief land officer for Bangladesh, Mamun Rashid, talks over what opportunities lie in advance for the surround with a bank

by Lara Wozniak

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Bangladesh remains one of the few remaining outposts in investment banking in Asia. But banks are steadily investing in the country and last year Citi established an investment banking presence in Bangladesh. The bank’s chief country officer for the rude, Mamun Rashid, explains the kind of opportunities contrive ahead for Citi in Bangladesh.

What investment banking opportunities are there in Bangladesh?There is a wide stroll of opportunities to help clients in Bangladesh raise capital to bear up their advancement or advise them without ceasing opportunities to grow either domestically or internationally. We are also seeing an increased good from companies looking to dress in Bangladesh.

A novel example of this would be the annunciation in mid-June where AK Khan & Co signed a definitive agreement for the sale of its 30% adventure in TMIB to NTT DoCoMo for a purchase account of $350 million. [TMIB is the third part largest mobile operator in Bangladesh, through around 7.1 million subscribers as of December 2007: AKK is one of the largest and oldest private sector corporations in Bangladesh.]

The acquisition by NTT DoCoMo determination serve to increase its footprint in the fast growing Asian wireless market. What better example of the increasing between nations investment passion into Bangladesh than an investing. by one of the world’s leading corporations?

On the capital markets front, the pace of privatisation is increasing and the government has started floating state-owned enterprises. Last year alone 14 companies were listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange from one side IPOs. The degree of progress of ameliorate has been impressive and the government and regulators have done a good job in promoting development. Over the past five years the Asian Development Bank together with the Securities Exchange Commission have developed new commercial rules, public issue rules, pacification systems and bond issuance rules to govern the market and create added transparency in the marketplace.

More and more companies in Bangladesh are in like manner increasingly using risk management products and hedging in today’s volatile global markets. This is also something where we can play a role via our equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities teams to help clients navigate these volatile markets, including hedging against future rises in commodities prices.

What is Citi’s history in Bangladesh?Citibank established its presence in Bangladesh through a representative office in 1987. The bank opened its first full-service branch in Dhaka in 1995 and the second derivative line in Chittagong in 2000. At present, Citibank Bangladesh has four branches, and two offshore banking units in the export processing zones in both Dhaka and Chittagong.

Our operations include the major business units of Citi’s Institutional Clients Group, such as corporate and commercial banking, global transaction services. We also believed a license for investment banking operations earlier this year.

How sophisticated are some of Bangladesh’s governing companies? What products and services do they use?There is a noticeable become greater in sophistication, the dialogue we are having with some of our clients in the country is evolving fast: ‘What are my opportunities in the between nations essential markets?’ or ‘Give me some local and regional ideas to help me expand our business…’ are now formal discussions that were not so common just a few years ago.

Our main business however remains in the global transaction services space. Many companies in Bangladesh are looking for-cost effective and flexible action management services. In April, Citi signed a network arrangement which will yield our clients to use the more than 10,000 post offices in Bangladesh for their regular banking services. Also this year we signed an agreement by Dhaka Electric Supply Authority to offer our CitiConnect services to help them facilitate online hedge-bill collections and recompense services. We are furthermore active in the corporate and commercial banking space, providing corporate loans and other products to small- and medium-sized companies and multinationals in the country.