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Barclays Capital opens Taipei branch

Barclays Capital yesterday officially opened its new Taipei branch with an eye on the development potential of the nation's capital market.

Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of UK-based Barclays PLC, hopes to provide its expertise in overseas investments in derivatives as well as financing and risk management to local companies, an executive said yesterday.

"Taiwan is one of the biggest capital markets in Asia," Barclays Capital Taiwan's country head Peter Chen (陳冠達) said on the sidelines of the opening ceremony yesterday.

Chen added that the company hoped to double or even triple its customer base in Taiwan.

Barclays, which withdrew from the nation's corporate banking sector in 1995, expanded its number of outlets in the Asia Pacific region to 14 with the opening of the new branch.

Barclays Capital, which currently only has representative offices in Beijing and Shanghai, is slated to open its first branch in China in November.

The company has predicted that its Asian business will grow by between 15 percent and 20 percent per annum in the coming years.

Last month, Barclays Capital reported that its pre-tax profits surged 20 percent from a year ago to £703 million (US$1.25 billion) in the first half of the year, on revenue of £2.1 billion during the same period.

Its parent company, Barclays PLC, meanwhile reported a first-half pre-tax income of £2.7 billion, up 9 percent from a year ago.
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