City of London to park by the Gateway
By TNN |
Highlights
MUMBAI: The City of London has received permission from the Reserve Bank of India to set up an office in India. The City, which already has three offices in China, represents the international financial and business cluster.
The office will market London as a gateway to world finance by encouraging companies to list on London exchanges and raise capital there. The opening of an office in India was disclosed by Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the UK in a roundtable with heads of financial services firms in Mumbai.
Bankers feel that the office could help small enterprises list on the Alternative Investment Market ��� an exchange where real estate companies from India have raised over half a billion pounds. NSE managing director Ravi Narain, who was part of the roundtable, said that the UK could help India develop a small enterprise market, similar to AIM in India.
An RBI official confirmed that it has granted permission for a liaison office in response to an application from the City of London received during the India visit of London���s Mayor David Brewer in March last year. Friday���s roundtable was attended by 40 CEOs from India���s financial sector, including the heads of ICICI Bank, HSBC, Citibank, AIG, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, NSE, and NCDEX, among others.
At the roundtable hosted by ICICI Bank, Mr Brown also indicated that ties between the UK and India have strengthened, with India agreeing to allow UK Law firms to provide services here. He added that Lloyds of London is likely to set up operations here.
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An outcome of Mr Brown���s visit is that the two countries have held annual meeting on business co-operation, which will provide banks a platform to have a dialogue on the issues they face in the UK market. At the roundtable, Morgan Stanley MD VK Bansal said that AIM could look at raising the limits for the amount of money companies could raise. NCDEX CEO PH Ravikumar said that the UK could share its expertise in water management, maintenance of land records and migration to a market pricing of electricity.
Currently, over 20 Indian firms are listed on the London Stock Exchange. In 2005, emerging market companies raised more than $13 billion in London. Almost $500 billion of international funds is managed in London ��� nearly twice the amount managed in New York.
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