Others News
- Merrill confident on brokerage license
Date: 23-Apr-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch is confident it will be able to enter China's brokerage sector though the timing and form of such access remain unclear, a senior executive said Friday.
Merrill is one of a number of global investment banks keen to tap China's capital markets, but a freeze on approvals of new brokerage joint ventures by the securities regulator has hung a cloud of uncertainty over their plans.
Kevan Watts, chairman of Merrill's international unit, said that he had every reason to believe the Chinese Government would take the steps needed to improve its brokerage sector and that foreign firms would be involved in those changes.
'They will get there and I am very confident that will include making full use of the expertise and capabilities of firms like Merrill Lynch,'Watts said.
'How, when and in what form I don't know. But I'm sure that will come.'
Merrill signed a non-binding agreement in early 2005 on setting up a joint venture with mid-sized brokerage Huaan Securities, based in Anhui Province.
Watts declined to comment on whether Merrill expected to eventually obtain its brokerage license through a joint venture with Huaan.
'I really am genuinely not predicting what form or when,'he said.
Swiss bank UBS last year won approval to set up a brokerage business in China via a 20 percent investment in Beijing Securities.
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