'With China down, it's time for India to shine'
Story from page 12 - Money, dnaofmumbai
‘With China down, it’s time for India to shine’ Bernard Pouliot Bernard Pouliot, chairman of Hong Kong-based Quam Financial Services Group, has been active in the financial services field covering brokerage, asset management, corporate finance and capital markets, among others, and has been instrumental in expanding Quam’s business to cover China, the UAE, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Australia, the UK and the US. A director of a number of privately-owned and publicly-listed companies in Hong Kong and in the region, he is also a trustee for Outward Bound, director of Alliance Française and chairman of Global Alliance Partners (GAP). Pouliot, who was in Mumbai recently, spoke with Ashish K Tiwari and Anto T Joseph about his India plans while also sharing views on slowdown in China and how India has an opportunity to shine now. What’s your take on India looking at its growth in comparison to the slowing down of China? Well, in many ways, Narendra Modi has done an incredibly good PR job travelling and being seen overseas while also attracting people and raising the level of interest for India across the globe. I think that he has certainly struck a lot of people in a positive way. Everybody says India’s got potential and we all know that. But is it today or in the future, and how far is that future? I think now the future is getting closer to the present. There certainly is an opportunity now with Modi, his visibility and the fact that things are slowing down in China. However, infrastructure continues to be India’s biggest worry and China has that advantage because they focused on infrastructure first and foremost as they followed the American model. But then, China can also take decisions that India cannot take in the same fashion and speed and that clearly is what needs to be done. It’s clearly a numbers game here but the problem is that people have not been able to crack the code. It takes time but it’s there, it’s a real thing and one has to just know how to get it right. Hopefully, with Essel, we will be able to do so. Interestingly, on my flight to India, there were also people from Sun Life which has a partnership here with Aditya Birla Group. Let me tell you they are more successful in India as compared to China as they found it very difficult in China. By the way, they told me Kumar Mangalam Birla has done a fantastic job taking over from his father. I asked them the reason and they said he chose the right people and let them run the business. You have been exploring the Indian market in terms of establishing presence for Global Alliance Partners (GAP). How have your talks with Essel progressed?
That’s correct, and in fact, that is primarily the reason for me to be here because India is an important economy for our platform. We used to have indirect representation via a Dubai office of an Indian group, but now we would like to have a direct representation in India. The objective is to be able to offer investment opportunities and transactions to all our alliance partners. The idea is not to expand crazy but to expand with the right partner. We have made significant progress and have had meetings with the top management of Essel Group of companies in that respect. We want to give them a flavour of what GAP is all about. Being a big group, they are also doing the necessary due-diligence on us. So talks are in very advanced stages and we are certain Essel Finance will be joining the GAP network very soon. I think by April this year, Essel will make that decision final. Could you briefly tell us about GAP, what it does and its current network? GAP is a voluntary association of like-minded institutions that wish to break out from the domestic market and work on an international platform. The GAP platform currently has 12 partners globally – including Essel Finance – across 16 international locations. Though our presence is heavily skewed to Asia Pacific region i.e., Australia, Tokyo, Hong Kong, China Thailand and Dubai to name a few, we also have representation in New York and London. The idea is really to permit each of these domestic operations to have an international network without having to incur the cost of capital and manpower while at the same take advantage of local contacts that each of the members have. Knowing very well that the primary objective of each of these partners is the domestic market, I see no reason why they should not add an international flavour. The very fact that our partners are a part of an international network gives them better access to clients and credibility to be able to pursue business deals in any of the international markets we are currently present in. What is Quam’s connection with GAP? Quam is a Hong Kong-based listed company that is into brokerage, asset management, banking, etc. It is also the founding partner of GAP that was established eight years ago in 2008. Prior to instituting GAP, I was aggressively working on developing relations for Quam through equity participation with some of the partner firms in Tokyo, Thailand and Dubai, and in 2008, we decided to form this alliance. Interestingly, Quam is in the final phase of change of control and will be acquired by the largest private bank in China called China Minsheng Banking Corp. The bank was created 20 years ago and currently has close to $50 billion in capital and a trillion US dollar worth of assets. While it is a big bank by any standard, untill last year, they were only present in China. However, as business is slowing down a bit in China and clients are going overseas, they realised they need somebody to accompany them in the international markets which led to China Minsheng acquiring Quam. What is the deal like with Essel Finance? It is clearly very early days. We will have to first make the partnership work and see how Essel evolves. Interestingly, Essel Finance also has its own proprietary network comprising 30 partners in 19 countries mainly in the US, Europe and Middle East. Our strength is Asia Pacific, which complements well and can be leveraged to the best of the abilities. Besides, Essel may have
future plans to enter deep into investment banking, brokerage, asset management, etc. They are already doing private equity, that can evolve further. Hopefully, Essel Finance will be able to bring opportunities for investors within the GAP group who would be interested to have a footprint in India. I think, with China slowing in terms of growth and possibilities of better returns on investment in India, businesses would want to look at exploring growth in India. Things are changing and the wind has started blowing already. While China cannot be completely dismissed, it’s time for India to shine because there is a window of opportunity now. So right now, we are trying to identify areas, it could be asset management or trading or even exchange of ideas in terms of compliance. Is there a possibility of any equity participation in India from Quam? Not for the time being. We are not looking at any acquisition whatsoever because we still have to complete the equity transaction with China Minsheng Bank. Once that will be done, what they have clearly told us, is to focus on markets like Hong Kong, Singapore, London and New York. While anything is possible in India, the only difficulty, as you’d have known in the past, is that the path to doing business in India was never very clear. However, having an Indian partner within the GAP network will change that thought because suddenly they’ve got somebody to talk to. That is important and that’s what everybody is looking forward to. I cannot really talk for China Minsheng Bank, but we never know what’s in store because India’s banking industry is opening up as well. I think capital market, especially on the equity side, is an area that India needs to open up more because it has always been like a black-box for a lot of people.
Published Date: Feb 01, 2016
‘With China down, it’s time for India to shine’ Bernard Pouliot Bernard Pouliot, chairman of Hong Kong-based Quam Financial Services Group, has been active in the financial services field covering brokerage, asset management, corporate finance and capital markets, among others, and has been instrumental in expanding Quam’s business to cover China, the UAE, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Australia, the UK and the US. A director of a number of privately-owned and publicly-listed companies in Hong Kong and in the region, he is also a trustee for Outward Bound, director of Alliance Française and chairman of Global Alliance Partners (GAP). Pouliot, who was in Mumbai recently, spoke with Ashish K Tiwari and Anto T Joseph about his India plans while also sharing views on slowdown in China and how India has an opportunity to shine now. What’s your take on India looking at its growth in comparison to the slowing down of China? Well, in many ways, Narendra Modi has done an incredibly good PR job travelling and being seen overseas while also attracting people and raising the level of interest for India across the globe. I think that he has certainly struck a lot of people in a positive way. Everybody says India’s got potential and we all know that. But is it today or in the future, and how far is that future? I think now the future is getting closer to the present. There certainly is an opportunity now with Modi, his visibility and the fact that things are slowing down in China. However, infrastructure continues to be India’s biggest worry and China has that advantage because they focused on infrastructure first and foremost as they followed the American model. But then, China can also take decisions that India cannot take in the same fashion and speed and that clearly is what needs to be done. It’s clearly a numbers game here but the problem is that people have not been able to crack the code. It takes time but it’s there, it’s a real thing and one has to just know how to get it right. Hopefully, with Essel, we will be able to do so. Interestingly, on my flight to India, there were also people from Sun Life which has a partnership here with Aditya Birla Group. Let me tell you they are more successful in India as compared to China as they found it very difficult in China. By the way, they told me Kumar Mangalam Birla has done a fantastic job taking over from his father. I asked them the reason and they said he chose the right people and let them run the business. You have been exploring the Indian market in terms of establishing presence for Global Alliance Partners (GAP). How have your talks with Essel progressed?
That’s correct, and in fact, that is primarily the reason for me to be here because India is an important economy for our platform. We used to have indirect representation via a Dubai office of an Indian group, but now we would like to have a direct representation in India. The objective is to be able to offer investment opportunities and transactions to all our alliance partners. The idea is not to expand crazy but to expand with the right partner. We have made significant progress and have had meetings with the top management of Essel Group of companies in that respect. We want to give them a flavour of what GAP is all about. Being a big group, they are also doing the necessary due-diligence on us. So talks are in very advanced stages and we are certain Essel Finance will be joining the GAP network very soon. I think by April this year, Essel will make that decision final. Could you briefly tell us about GAP, what it does and its current network? GAP is a voluntary association of like-minded institutions that wish to break out from the domestic market and work on an international platform. The GAP platform currently has 12 partners globally – including Essel Finance – across 16 international locations. Though our presence is heavily skewed to Asia Pacific region i.e., Australia, Tokyo, Hong Kong, China Thailand and Dubai to name a few, we also have representation in New York and London. The idea is really to permit each of these domestic operations to have an international network without having to incur the cost of capital and manpower while at the same take advantage of local contacts that each of the members have. Knowing very well that the primary objective of each of these partners is the domestic market, I see no reason why they should not add an international flavour. The very fact that our partners are a part of an international network gives them better access to clients and credibility to be able to pursue business deals in any of the international markets we are currently present in. What is Quam’s connection with GAP? Quam is a Hong Kong-based listed company that is into brokerage, asset management, banking, etc. It is also the founding partner of GAP that was established eight years ago in 2008. Prior to instituting GAP, I was aggressively working on developing relations for Quam through equity participation with some of the partner firms in Tokyo, Thailand and Dubai, and in 2008, we decided to form this alliance. Interestingly, Quam is in the final phase of change of control and will be acquired by the largest private bank in China called China Minsheng Banking Corp. The bank was created 20 years ago and currently has close to $50 billion in capital and a trillion US dollar worth of assets. While it is a big bank by any standard, untill last year, they were only present in China. However, as business is slowing down a bit in China and clients are going overseas, they realised they need somebody to accompany them in the international markets which led to China Minsheng acquiring Quam. What is the deal like with Essel Finance? It is clearly very early days. We will have to first make the partnership work and see how Essel evolves. Interestingly, Essel Finance also has its own proprietary network comprising 30 partners in 19 countries mainly in the US, Europe and Middle East. Our strength is Asia Pacific, which complements well and can be leveraged to the best of the abilities. Besides, Essel may have
future plans to enter deep into investment banking, brokerage, asset management, etc. They are already doing private equity, that can evolve further. Hopefully, Essel Finance will be able to bring opportunities for investors within the GAP group who would be interested to have a footprint in India. I think, with China slowing in terms of growth and possibilities of better returns on investment in India, businesses would want to look at exploring growth in India. Things are changing and the wind has started blowing already. While China cannot be completely dismissed, it’s time for India to shine because there is a window of opportunity now. So right now, we are trying to identify areas, it could be asset management or trading or even exchange of ideas in terms of compliance. Is there a possibility of any equity participation in India from Quam? Not for the time being. We are not looking at any acquisition whatsoever because we still have to complete the equity transaction with China Minsheng Bank. Once that will be done, what they have clearly told us, is to focus on markets like Hong Kong, Singapore, London and New York. While anything is possible in India, the only difficulty, as you’d have known in the past, is that the path to doing business in India was never very clear. However, having an Indian partner within the GAP network will change that thought because suddenly they’ve got somebody to talk to. That is important and that’s what everybody is looking forward to. I cannot really talk for China Minsheng Bank, but we never know what’s in store because India’s banking industry is opening up as well. I think capital market, especially on the equity side, is an area that India needs to open up more because it has always been like a black-box for a lot of people.
Published Date: Feb 01, 2016
