A recent research report by Raymond Lee, head of regional financial institution research at Salomon Smith Barney, is predicting that there will be a wave of mergers and acquisitions MA among the Hong Kong and Singapore banking communities. The pressure of market liberalization and the subsequent profit stress will force the banks from the two cities to merge among each other or seek acquisitions from third parties.
In Hong Kong, Mr Lee says that the city is over-banked. And as the deposit interest rate ceiling is being phased out, so the smaller banks will come under pressure to merge or sell out as their valuations become depressed. A further fillip to the...
