ING Wholesale Banking Opens Thai representative Office

The Dutch ING Wholesale Banking (ING) announced Thursday that it has opened a representative office in Thailand, as part of its plans to broaden its South East Asia franchise.

The news follows approvals from the Bank of Thailand and the Ministry of Commerce which allow ING to undertake economic and market research, collection of data in support of cross-border financial advisory, and activities in Thailand to support clients financing. The new office will work in cooperation with ING's branch in Singapore, which is the regional headquarters of the corporate and investment bank in the region.

Wilfred Nagel, head of ING Wholesale Banking in Asia, stated: "ING is boosting its capital commitment to Thailand on the back of solid opportunities for growth, leveraging the Thai representative office. While the volatile equities market has increased local companies' appetite for debt products and services, we also see increasing opportunities in cross-border mergers and acquisitions as European or regional corporate seek to expand their exposure to this high growth market. In addition there has been a clear trend in Thai companies looking to challenge the competitive environment by tying up with Thai or foreign investors to boost know-how and business operations."

ING recently completed two offshore deals for Thai companies: advising Banpu on the US$84 million acquisition of four coal-fired power plants in China and a US$130 million project financing of Gulf Electrics subsidiary, Gulf Power Generation Company Ltd., for a Greenfield gas-fired power plant.