Ricciardi: Haitong Bank aims to accelerate its global expansion and more than triple its assets

O Haitong Bank, formerly BES Investimento (BESI), plans to accelerate its global expansion and wants to more than triple its assets to 15 billion euros in 2018, and is already analyzing targets for acquiring a brokerage in New York and one or two asset management companies in Europe.

In an interview with Reuters, CEO José Maria Ricciardi said that Haitong Bank will be responsible for the regions EMEA-Europe, Middle East and Africa, the Americas and India, while emphasizing that, "We will be responsible for a very important geographic part of the world. In all aspects, it's an extraordinary challenge."

"Our shareholder has enormous financial strength and impressive financial capacity that no Portuguese bank has (…) We will build an extremely ambitious business plan," said Ricciardi.

He emphasized that, according to the plan, "in 2018, Haitong Bank will have more than tripled its capital to around 1,500 million euros, up from around 400 million euros today, and have assets of approximately 15,000 million euros, compared to the current level of some 4,000 million euros".

"It's an impressive leap forward, which will take place through acquisitions, rather than just via organic growth in various geographies, and will focus on London and New York, where we plan to invest heavily, since they are the two global financial centers of the West," said Ricciardi.