India is attractive from economic and workforce perspective: Axel Lehmann, UBS

In a chat with ET Now, Axel Lehmann, Chief Operating Officer, UBS, says UBS is bullish on India in the long amd medium term.

Edited excerpts:


You have a lot of large clients in India. What are you talking to them about? How bullish are they about the prospects over here?

UBS is a global leader in wealth management as well as being in the investment bank. What we are doing these days is working very closely with our key clients. For example when foreigners want to invest into Indian equities. Our chief investment officer and wealth management are quite bullish on India in the longer and medium term. It is one of the largest economies globally with strong growth. So on this, it is a very positive sentiment.

You are also operating in several emerging markets across the world. How do you compare India scenario with other emerging markets?

Obviously India at this stage is roughly the sixth largest economy worldwide, growing at the rate of over 7% annually. This is dramatic. It is very encouraging. We also look at India from workforce perspective. India has a very well educated population and a very young population. Two-thirds of the population is below 35 years. So there is tremendous opportunity for us as a global leader in the banking industry.

What is your view as far as reform roadmap in India is concerned and also, the political leadership. What is the impact that it is having on investors’ view point and sentiment?

I think what is important that we have a leadership that is supportive of the economy, supportive of economic growth. It creates a good stable regulatory environment and I think these are absolutely the right steps going forward.

Can you share with us what the UBS’ experience in India has been so far?

UBS has a long history in the presence in India going back close to 25 years in particular in the equities business, advisory and M&A business. In 2009, we started to work with the Indian vendor system and started to have a presence of overall workforce that we continued to strengthen over the years. We have more than 10,000 people deployed here in India.

You have been expanding your business operations in India. Talk to us about the areas where you are expanding.

We are opening our second business solution centre in Airoli here in Mumbai. We had opened our first one in Pune last year and it will create at least 1200 seats. 2000 more people will be deployed here . So it is very important also footprint for us from a global workforce strategy for the group.

What is the attractiveness of India, you do have an expansion plan on the ground so what is it that attracts firms like UBS to India?

We are here for the long run. We look to the Indian market as a highly attractive market from overall economic perspective but in particular also from a workforce perspective. Digitisation is a really key topic for the whole industry, for UBS and we truly believe that India with the ecosystem that you have here with strong technology and operations support companies, is very well positioned. So we are looking to stay long term in India and nurture the employees and the workforce we have for the benefit of the whole organisation and from also global perspective.