The New Nation - Internet Edition

StanChart completes Amex Bank acquisition for $823m

BUSINESS REPORT

Standard Chartered PLC announced on February 29 that it received all the required approvals leading to the completion of its acquisition of American Express Bank Ltd (AEB) from the American Express Company (AXP). The total cash consideration for the acquisition is US$823 million.

The acquisition of AEB provides Standard Chartered with an opportunity to add capability, scale and momentum in the strategically important Financial Institutions and Private Banking businesses. It will add 19 more markets to the Standard Chartered footprint, while deepening presence in some core markets and providing access to several new growth markets.

The addition of the AEB business will fast track the growth aspirations of The Standard Chartered Private Bank, building immediate capability and scale in people, product and processes. AEB will enhance Standard Chartered's private banking presence in its key markets, leveraging on its exceptional advantage to grow market share and build scale in existing markets like Singapore, Hong Kong, India and The Middle East. It will also add capability in trust, fiduciary services, margin trading, wraps, and extend geographic reach with new booking centres in Geneva, Monaco, Miami, New York and London.

AEB will also help accelerate Standard Chartered's Financial Institutions business and significantly enhance its capabilities in this core customer segment. This acquisition doubles Standard Chartered's US Dollar clearing business reinforcing its position among the leading US Dollar clearing businesses and ranking the group sixth globally.

In addition, AEB provides Standard Chartered with a direct Euro and Yen clearing capability. The extended geographic reach into new countries and deepening of Standard Chartered's presence in key existing markets will capture more trade and investment flows.

In Bangladesh, Financial Institutions business of Standard Chartered will significantly benefit from the acquisition.

Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered PLC said: "I welcome the American Express Bank employees into the Standard Chartered family. The AEB business brings along an exceptional management team and I look forward to them playing an important role in the Group."

As part of the transaction Standard Chartered and AXP have entered into a put and call option under which AXP can sell and Standard Chartered can buy 100% of American Express International Deposit Company (AEIDC) 18 months from today. The consideration payable to AXP will be the net asset value of AEIDC at the time of exercise of the option.

The integration is expected to take approximately 24 months.

Sonali Bank opens ATM booth at its Ramna Corporate branch in city

BUSINESS REPORT

Sonali Bank Ltd, country's largest government-owned commercial bank, has entered into the modern technology-based banking system through the inauguration of an ATM booth at its Ramna Corporate branch in the city yesterday.

S.A. Chowdhury, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Sonali Bank Ltd, formally inaugurated the ATM booth as the chief guest.

Customers will be able to avail 24-hour banking facilities from this booth by using debit cards.

Inaugurating the ATM booth, S.A. Chowdhury said, "Twelve such ATM booths will be launched in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Khulna within the shortest possible time.'

The Sonali Bank Managing Director also disclosed that ATM booths would also be installed at Motijheel, Cantonment and New Market branches of the bank soon. He said that computerisation of 238 branches of Sonali Bank has already been completed, while other 225 branches will be computerised within this year and rest of the branches will be computerised in phases.

The bank has developed its quality by introducing "One Step" service, he said.

It may be mentioned that Sonali Bank Ltd has introduced Remittance Management System (RMS) to enable to reach foreign remittances to their beneficiaries within 24 hours in any part of the country.

For inland remittances, such as, DD, MT, TT Instant Financial Reconciliation Messaging System (IFRMS) has been established within 300 branches to facilitate the customers to get their payment instantly.

Senior officials of the bank, including Deputy Managing Director and a large number of clients were present on the occasion.

Islami Bank Hospital- A model of service

BUSINESS REPORT

Annual get-together of Islami Bank Hospital was held on March 1 at the ground of Motijheel Govt Boys' High School, Dhaka.

Prof Abu Nasser Muhammad Abduz Zaber, Chairman, Board of Directors of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited was present as the chief guest.

Presided over by Mir Quasem Ali, Member (Admin), Islami Bank Hospital, the function was attended, among others, by Principal Moulana Zainul Abedin, Vice Chairman, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, AKM Sadrul Islam, Shamsul Huda, FCA, Directors, Engr. Muhammad Qawood Khan, Md. Shahidul Islam, Md. Fazle Azim, Nur Mohammad Akon, former Directors, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, Abdur Rouf, Commissioner, Ward No.36, Dhaka City Corporation.

Prof. Abu Nasser Muhammad Abduz Zaber said in his speech that Islami Bank Hospital is the model of medical services in the country. People from the segments get the treatment facility here without any discrimination.

Mir Quasem Ali said that Islami Bank Hospital had been providing treatment facilities to patients with modern technology. 'No individual or organisation is the beneficiary of the profit earned by the hospital,' he said.

He also said one-third of the profit is spent for the treatment of poor patients.

ICCB-GTZ workshop on Int'l Trade Payment Practice: Safeguarding garment exporters’ interests

BUSINESS REPORT

The Bangladesh National Committee of International Chamber of Commerce (ICCB), the world business organisation, in collaboration with German Technical Corporation (GTZ) is organising two workshops on 'International Trade Payment Practices' on March 3 and March 4 in Chittagong and Dhaka respectively.

To safeguard the interests of the RMG exporters, which accounts for more than 75 per cent of the country's export, it is very important that the exporters and concerned professionals have good knowledge on all trade related issues.

These workshops will provide participants with a solid understanding of the various international trade and finance instruments, procedure and rules. Participants will also learn about international contracts and payment terms and get an insight into the best method to structure secure trade transactions in order to optimise payment security and secure finance for trade from banks. The means of dealing with payment problems will also be reviewed.

Vincent O'Brien will be conducting both the workshops. O'Brien is a long standing member of the ICC Banking Commission Paris and a highly experienced practitioner of international trade finance.

GTZ is working actively in the RMG sector in order to increase the competitiveness of the sector by improving productivity, social compliance and adherence to environment standards.

It may be mentioned that, with UCP 600 becoming effective from July 2007, the ICC, Paris has modified the International Standard Banking Practice (ISBP) in order to ensure that all parties to documentary credit are made aware of their obligations rights and remedies depending upon their undertaking with the issuing bank, the performance of the underlying transaction and the timeliness of any objection under applicable law and practice.

ICC Bangladesh president, Mahbubur Rahman, inaugurated the workshop at Chittagong and ICCB Vice-President Latifur Rahman will inaugurate the workshop in Dhaka.

ICCB Vice President Samson H. Chowdhury, BGMEA President Anwar-ul-Alam Chowdhury (Parvez), BKMEA President Md Fazlul Hoque and Chairman, ICCB Standing Committee on Banking Technique and Practice and Managing Director, Citibank NA Bangladesh Mamunur Rashid are attending as special guests at the inaugural ceremony in Dhaka, while MA Salam, First Vice President of BGMEA attended the workshop at Chittagong as special guest.

A total of about 200 participants are attending the two workshops.

Thailand Exhibition from tomorrow

Department of Export Promotion (DEP), Ministry of Commerce, Royal Thai Government is going to organize Thailand Exhibition 2008 at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel From tomorrow (Wednesday). Marking the event a press conference was held in Press Club, Dhaka. Honorable Ambassador of Thailand to Bangladesh Chalermpol Thanchitt , Supaporn Wan-a-loh, The counselor (Commercial), Kazi Habib Sattar, President of Bangladesh-Thai chamber spoke in the occasion.

Ambassador of Thailand said that Thailand is planning to organize many other activities in Bangladesh to strengthen trade ties between two countries. Those activities will take part in March 2008 and take place in different venues in Dhaka and Chittagong respectively. He also said, Bangladeshi business community will find their trustworthy suppliers while the Thai exporters will find their long-term business partners. The counselor (Commercial), said that they have many more activities in Thailand Exhibition 2008 in Dhaka, Likewise: One to One Meeting between Bangladeshi Businessmen and Thai exporters, One stop support desk, visitor will be able to get any information, consultant service for Spa to set up Thai Spa or beauty saloon in Bangladesh, Thai Special Event i.e. Thai cultural show focusing modern and traditional culture of Thailand.

Kazi Habib Sattar, President of Bangladesh-Thai chamber said that this exhibition has now become a regular annual event and will come up with some special feature this year.

He also said that they are trying to balance the trade between Bangladesh and Thailand. They are also inviting the Thai entrepreneur to invest in Bangladesh since Bangladesh is a good place for the investors. He thanked all and sought the cooperation from everybody especially from the media. In question- answer round, the Anbassador Chalermpol said since he holds his position as an Ambassador to Bangladesh relatively recently but he would take personal initiative to promote Bangladesh business to Thailand.

He further stated Thai entrepreneurs are showing interest to invest in the oil and gas exploration scheme of Bangladesh. Thai investor already invested in the Hotel sector of Bangladesh. He pointed out that the rules and regulations of the Government of Bangladesh are needed to be more relaxed. He also emphasized on people to people contact and as a sign of that he mentioned a Thai cultural troop would perform in Bangladesh in this year.

A total of 43 companies will feature their 11 categories of products, including chemical products, construction materials, hardware and machinery, auto parts and accessories, gift and decorative items, health and beauty, household and kitchen war products, leather products and footwear, textile and garments etc.

Citi appoints Tawfiq Ali as new FI head in Bangladesh

BUSINESS REPORT

Citibank, N.A. Bangladesh has recently appointed Tawfiq Ali to head its Financial Institutions (FI) business in Bangladesh. As Head of FI Tawfiq will be responsible for managing banks' relationship with bank and non-bank institutions.

Tawfiq joined Citi in early 2006 and has been working as head of bank relationships for almost two years. Before joining Citi, he worked with ANZ Grindlays Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, in commercial banking and financial institutions.

Tawfiq has an MBA from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Dhaka University and has 14 years of relevant experience.

New Managing Director of Nestle Bangladesh Limited

Laurent Therond, a Swiss national, has been appointed as the Managing Director of Nestle Bangladesh Limited from March 1.

Therond joined Nestle in 1993 in Vevey, Switzerland. He had handled a variety of assignments across locations; in the commercial function in Ivory Coast, as Group Product Manager-- Dairy in United Arab Emirates and as Country Manager in Kuwait before moving into his last role of heading the chilled dairy business in Nestle Egypt.

His expertise in the field of marketing and commercial functions and strong leadership abilities are expected to immensely benefit the company to pursue its aggressive growth plans in Bangladesh.

Therond replaces Carlo Cifiello, an Italian national, who led Nestle operations in Bangladesh as the Managing Director since October 2002. During Cifiello's tenure the company has shown excellent growth and further strengthened its position in Bangladesh as the leading food & beverage, nutrition company.

He also played a key role in the ongoing transformation of Nestle Bangladesh Limited from a purely food and beverage company to leader in nutrition, health and wellness as part of the Nestle Group's global initiative.

He was also the Vice-President of the Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for the year 2007. Carlo Cifiello will be on transfer to Israel as Head of Nestle Professionals.

Nestle Bangladesh Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nestle SA Switzerland, world's leading nutrition, health and wellness company with sales of 107.6 billion Swiss Francs (CHF) in 2007. Nestle has been operating in Bangladesh since 1994 and currently markets world renowned brands such as NIDO, MAGGI, NESCAFE and Infant Nutrition products, etc.