CIMB purchase of RBS India hits legal wall

An "unexpected legal issue" has forced RBS to drop its India business from an ongoing bulk sale and purchase agreement.

CIMB still expects to establish operations in India through other means, either by building its own operation or by applying for a new licence or purchasing an entity with an existing licence. 

"This termination of the proposed sale of RBS’ cash equities, equity capital markets and M&A corporate finance business in India is due to an unexpected legal issue arising in connection with the sale of the Indian businesses by RBS,"CIMB said in a release.

"The main part of CIMB’s acquisition from RBS, involving operations in China and Hong Kong as well as their London and New York-based staff, was completed on 30 June 2012. The transfer of operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand was completed on 27 April 2012, and the balance involving Australia and
Taiwan is on schedule for completion in the fourth quarter of 2012," it added.

“We remain committed to having an Indian component to our Asia Pacific Investment Banking platform,” said Dato’ Sri Nazir Razak, Group Chief Executive, CIMB Group.“We see this as a temporary delay in our Indian build-up as we will now have to follow the same process as Korea, which was excluded from the RBS transaction
from the outset, and proceed to establish our own operation by applying for a new licence or purchasing an entity with an existing licence.”

The India businesses were a part of a larger deal, in which CIMB agreed to acquire most of the Asia Pacific cash equities and associated investment banking businesses of RBS in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

CIMB’s agreement to acquire most of the Asia Pacific cash equities and associated investment banking businesses of RBS was announced on 2 April 2012 at an initial cost of GBP173.9 million (RM849.4 million). Without the Indian portion, the total acquisition cost will be reduced to around GBP160 million (RM781 million).