HSBC is fighting Asian rivals for a $900 million stake in one of Thailand's banks.

The British group is bidding against Korea Development Bank and Thai Thanachart Bank for a 47.6 per cent stake in Siam City Bank, the country's the seventh biggest lender.

A source close to the deal said HSBC and state-owned KDB faced tough competition from Thanachart, of which Canada's Bank of Novia Scotia owns 49 per cent.

The race for the stake — the biggest up for sale — underscores the lure of south-east Asia as the global banking industry seeks new funding sources.

Thailand is seeing a tentative recovery in foreign investment, drawing $1.9 billion last year, despite a political crisis with violent street protests, an airport blockade and an assassination attempt in the past two years.

The main Thai stock index rose 63 per cent last year, making it Asia's seventh-best performer. Final bids for Siam City are due by 25 January

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-bus...er-thai-bank.do

Korea Development Bank said on Monday it was interested in buying Thailand’s Siam City Bank, joining the race for the estimated $900m deal in which HSBC and a local Thai bank are also competing.

Five potential buyers have until January 25 to bid for a government-held 47.58 per cent stake in the seventh-largest bank in Thailand, people close to the deal said. Thanachart Bank, a Thai bank that is 49 per cent-owned by Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia, and HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, are seen as the leading bidders.

continued http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8dbc9ef0-0405-11...144feabdc0.html

all i can say is they are crazy,,,,,,,,SCIB has more skeletons in the closet than a graveyard !!!

not much to say right now,lets wait and watch

Well now I know why HSBC sold off its insurance brokerage. It can use the money as a downpayment on another bank and I thought it was to stabilize a bank with the shakes.

This deal should be a no brainer. Thanachart is an existing Thai bank and it is backed by a bank from a jurisdiction where there are no issues with bank stability or solvency. Scotia is small but it has the money to back this deal.

I wonder when the 'Preferrential loan terms' afforded to 'people of influence' are going to be discovered.

my bet is that Thanachart Bank (49% owned by Bank of Nova Scotia) will win the 47.5% stake in Siam City Bank....just a hunch....

SEOUL, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Korea Development Bank (KDB) has pulled out of an auction to buy a stake in Thailand's Siam City Bank, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday.

The Korea Economic Daily reported that KDB decided not to bid for the bank because the acquisition of the Thai retail bank could hamper its efforts to become a commercial investment bank.

"We gave up our plan to buy Siam City Bank," the newspaper quoted an unnamed KDB senior official as saying

KDB was not immediately available for comment.

http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&am...;action=article

any word on the bid winner? I think the reported bid deadline was Feb 1st......

The owner of the house I take care of has a SCB account. The last time he was in there the manager asked to see him. Thinking he wanted to sell him something he said OK. The manager asked him if HE could borrow some money for a month to ease the banks cash flow problem

The whole banking system stinks. Fractional reserve banking is exactly what Bernie Madoff got sent to prison for 140 years for. His problem was he was just not a bank otherwise he would have been OK.

In any other business what the banks do would be classed as fraud!

It seems to me that the banks have just pulled off the biggest robbery in the history of banking. They have robbed the tax payer of TRILLIONS of dollars. They have nationalised their debts whilst privatising their profits.

How much foreign ownership is there in the big Thai banks - Bangkok Bank, Kasikorn Bank and Siam Commercial Bank?

My wife heard a pundit on television this morning bemoaning the lack of Thai stake in BB and KB.