Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Thai bank to increase lending to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam

26 March 2014

Krungthai Bank (KTB) is building up human resources and recruiting more managers for wholesale banking after finding that its ratio of relationship managers to corporate accounts is lower than its peers.

Of the 1,700 business groups in KTB's wholesale banking customer base, only 20% are active because the bank doesn't have enough relationship managers to cover all kinds of corporate customers. Though major banks have shifted to investment banking, KTB still aims to increase its corporate loans because its major income will continue to be interest income. KTB sees more opportunity to grow in corporate lending because it still has 800-900 accounts that are not actively captured. KTB's wholesale banking portfolio runs around Bt600 billion.

KTB will also increase its role as a lender in the CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) market. In Laos alone, KTB is the largest lender among Thai banks. KTB is the lead arranger for a US$700 million syndicated loan to the 410-megawatt hydropower plant operated by Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Co (PNPC). KTB will be active in Laos as the lead arranger of syndicated loans because Laos, which is the "battery of Asia", has power plant projects that require debt financing.

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