Five years after launching its Singapore branch with great fanfare, Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) is about to close it. The bank announced today that it was restructuring its business operations in the Far East. The activities of the bank's Singapore branch, which focuses on private banking, will be gradually transferred to Hong Kong and China, with the support of the branches of Bank Hapoalim (Switzerland) Ltd.
The restructuring will be carried out by the representative office of Bank Hapoalim (Switzerland) and by its Hong Kong subsidiary, BHI Investment Advisors (Asia) Ltd., which specializes in investment advice, and by Poalim Asia Direct Ltd., which operates in China.
Bank Hapoalim's activity in the East began when, in 2006, Hapoalim Switzerland bought another bank in that country that had activity in Hong Kong. Following that, then Hapoalim chairman Shlomo Nehama, who believed in a strategy of expansion overseas, decided to open a branch in Singapore. The aim of the branch was to operate in private banking, and later to advise Israeli businesses operating in China. Hapoalim saw Singapore as a gateway to the growing markets of East Asia and to the management of the money of the region's wealthy.
The opening of the Singapore branch was part of the realization of Hapoalim's vision of becoming a global bank that it declared in 2004. Nehama set a target of reaching a position in which 30% of the bank's revenue and profits would derive from its international activity. Meanwhile, however, the global financial crisis broke out, all the dreams of expansion were put on ice, and today the trend is to return to basics.
Bank Hapoalim's attempt to invest resources in developing activity in Hong Kong comes against a background of expansion of the global banking system in the Far East. In this context, it should be recalled that Bank Leumi plans to open a representative office in Shanghai.
Bank Hapoalim said in a statement: "Bank Hapoalim seeks to expand its business activity in East Asia. As part of this concept and to maximize operational efficiency, private banking customer service in Asia will be provided through the branches of Bank Hapoalim (Switzerland) in Zurich, Geneva, and Luxembourg, and through the Hong Kong unit."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 23, 2012
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