Macquarie Bank announces entry into Indian market

28 July 2005

Macquarie Bank today announced plans to enter the Indian market.

The Bank said that, subject to full regulatory approval, it will establish a securities brokerage business in Mumbai. It said that Stuart Smythe has relocated from Macquarie's New York office to be Head of Equities, India, Sarosh Irani has joined as Chief Operating Officer and Jal Irani has joined Macquarie as Head of Research, India.

Macquarie said its Asian Corporate Finance group intends to establish a significant presence in India with a focus on equity capital markets (ECM), convertible notes, M&A advisory and other advisory and specialist funds management businesses. Macquarie has identified a number of high-calibre corporate finance professionals to establish the business.

Other groups, including the Financial Services Group and Banking and Property Group, have been exploring opportunities in the Indian market.

"India is clearly an important market for Macquarie given our rapid growth in Asia," said Roy Laidlaw, Head of Macquarie Securities. "Our entry into India expands our presence to all key Asian markets. It enables us to meet the demands of our international clients who are becoming increasingly active in this already large, but still growing, market," he said.

Mr Laidlaw said Macquarie would move to quickly develop its operations in Mumbai and planned to build up a staff of around 40 people.

Andrew Low, Macquarie's Head of Corporate Finance, Asia, said: "Macquarie is delighted to be adding a strong India focus to our leading Asia-based advisory, equity capital markets and specialist funds franchises. The Indian market offers particular opportunities in sectors such as infrastructure, resources, real estate, and media and technology, in which we have particular strength."

Macquarie said it is in the process of obtaining approvals for licenses which will provide a platform for it to develop stockbroking, equity research, equity capital markets (ECM) and corporate finance business in India.

This is the latest in a number of recent developments that strengthen Macquarie's investment banking operations in Asia. In April, Macquarie Securities formed a securities joint venture with Thai Military Bank to provide investment banking services in Thailand. In March, Macquarie was one of five firms given approval to establish a foreign stock broking company in Malaysia. Since March 2005, Macquarie has established corporate finance operations in Indonesia and Taiwan.

Macquarie's acquisition of ING’s Asian cash equities business in July 2004 gave it a footprint in 10 Asian countries. It currently employs over 850 staff in Asia and has one of the largest equities sales and research teams dedicated to Asia with more than 90 specialist sales people in Asia, Europe and North America selling Asia-Pacific stocks and more than 60 analysts covering over 500 stocks in the region.

Globally, the Macquarie Bank Group is a diversified international provider of specialist financial and investment banking services with over 6,800 people in 24 countries.

For further information, please contact:

Lotte Pang
Media Relations, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 9805 4070

Matthew Russell
Public Relations
Macquarie Bank Limited
Tel: (612) 8232 4102
Mobile: (614) 1069 9532

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