Credit Suisse is pursuing new opportunities in Vietnam and Pakistan while it keeps up its search for a securities joint venture partner in China, its top Asia Pacific executive said on Monday.
Switzerland's second-largest bank Credit Suisse, which is hosting its annual Asian Investment Conference this week, is targeting state privatisation's in Vietnam and providing client access to Pakistan's booming stock market, said Paul Calello, Chief Executive, Asia Pacific.
"We have a really strong line up of speakers that can shed light on some of the lesser-known investment opportunities, such as in Vietnam, Pakistan and in the private equity world," Calello told Reuters in an interview.
In Pakistan, Credit Suisse will form partnerships with local counterparts by as early as next month to give clients direct access to stocks in a market that is up 21 percent this year after soaring 51 percent in 2005. "The efforts of privatisation have been really quite remarkable," said Calello, who met with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and senior officials there last week. "It's an open market."
Credit Suisse has invited Vietnam's vice minister of finance and the special economics and finance advisor to the Prime Minister, Salman Shah to speak at its conference, which will draw more than 1,000 investors and 250 companies with a total market value of $2 trillion.
Credit Suisse estimates there will be $5 to 6 billion in state-owned enterprise (SOE) privatisation's in the next two to four years in Vietnam, a market that has drawn a lot of attention lately.
It is also continuing to search for a securities joint venture partner in China, where rivals Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs have recently set up their own shops.
Credit Suisse poached highly regarded Morgan Stanley veteran Mihir Doshi earlier this year to run its business in India, where it is reactivating a brokering unit that was suspended from operations in 2002.
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