The Chinese financial group, which provides services including private banking, now has won a green light to launch investment banking via Singapore.

The Singapore branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Asian banking behemoth that provides services including wealth management, is launching an investment banking arm.

The launch is going ahead after ICBC Singapore won regulatory clearance from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It has also won accreditation as an issue manager from Singapore Exchange Ltd.
ICBC Singapore offers a corporate banking, financial institutional banking, global cash management, private banking and retail banking.

“With the continuous progression of Belt and Road Initiatives (“BRI”) as well as the increase in economic cooperation between China and Singapore, we have seen strong interest from Chinese companies to tap into Singapore’s capital markets,” Ms Geng Hao, deputy general manager of ICBC Singapore, said.

“Tapping on our massive network of clientele in China, our initial focus will be on real estate developers and property owners in Tier 1 and 2 cities in China as potential listing candidates for REITs and Business Trusts on SGX. We will also zoom in on sectors such as healthcare, consumer and technology for non-REITs/BT IPOs,” Ms Hao said.

“Another area of our business focus will be corporate finance advisory services, which include follow-on fund raisings, reverse takeovers, M&A advisory services, private equity and pre-IPO fund raisings. Companies from South-East Asia including Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia will also be our targeted potential clients,” she added.