TEquity Partners to branch overseaso offer corporate finance solutions in South Asia, Gulf:

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Equity Partners, the investment banking joint venture between DFCC Stockbrokers, HNB Stockbrokers and HNB Securities will shortly offer wide ranging Corporate Financing Solutions in South Asian region and the Gulf.

Equity Partners are already tied up with the Chennai-headquartered City Union Bank of India which has 140 plus branches and will be venturing into Bangladesh, Maldives and the Gulf.

“We have regional aspirations and we are going to open out our markets with some niche products in some special areas, Equity Partners Chairman and DFCC Bank Director / CEO Nihal Fonseka told Daily News Business yesterday.

He also said that the company would be looking at Gulf and South Asian markets such as Maldives and Bangladesh for similar operations and have identified them. However, he said that the transactions will be effective only with the completion of the due diligence processes completed which will be effective in 2009.

Meanwhile, Equity Partners Executive Director and HNB Stockbrokers Managing Director Deva Ellepola said that the joint venture company was attempting to leverage economies of scale and that the local corporate’s tie up with the Indian counterpart, would see the offering of a large number of fee based solutions such as project financing and corporate financing along with the non fee based activities such as Fund Management at affordable rates in comparison with the Indian counterparts.

He said that the reason to go for the lower end of the Indian market was due to stringent competition where the foreign players in India such as JP Morgan would go for funding of macro-projects such as over US$ 100 million while the domestic banking giants would fund projects up to US$ 50 million and that the local corporate would go in for projects which were relatively smaller up to around US $ 30 million.

Equity Partners would also serve as Corporate Advisors for transactions such as Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), restructuring and acquisitions and mergers, development of Derivative Markets while managing Corporate Bonds as well.

He said that the investments and the project financing will also be done at a later stage subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka as the foreign exchange had to be released.

Equity Partners is also the first and only instance of a fully integrated Investment Bank in Sri Lanka with the entire gamut of financial services such as investment banking, project financing, equity debt and corporate financing. The company commenced with the transfer of assets of DFCC Stockbrokers, HNB Stockbrokers and HNB Securities worth Rs. 500 million on July 1.