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alaysia’s CIMB Group Sdn. Bhd. has acquired most of the Asia-Pacific cash equity and investment banking businesses of the Royal Bank of Scotland Plc. (RBS), including those in Indonesia, in a £173.9 million (US$278.69 million) deal.

CIMB will pay about £88.4 million to acquire several equity capital markets, mergers and acquisition and cash equity businesses of RBS in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan and Thailand, both companies said in a statement released on Monday.

The second-biggest bank in Malaysia said the deal would make CIMB the largest investment banking franchise based in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan).

Edinburgh-based RBS in January announced a plan to exit the investment banking business (cash equities, corporate brokering, equity capital markets and mergers and acquisitions) and cut jobs after receiving the world’s biggest banking bailout during the global financial crisis.

Its decision to sell the units will cut costs significantly and “mitigate partially the shutdown costs otherwise associated with these businesses”, RBS said in its statement, adding that it maintained debt financing, risk management and transaction services in the 11 Asia-Pacific countries in which it operated.

“The transaction will be completed during Q4 2012. In certain jurisdictions, completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory conditions,” it added.

Three Bank CIMB Niaga and CIMB Securities executives contacted separately by The Jakarta Post declined to comment when asked about the impact of their parent company’s decision on their business framework and plans.

CIMB Group chief executive Dato’ Sri Nazir Razak, however, said the acquisition was “quicker and less expensive” than if the group grew organically. The group would also retain between 350 and 400 RBS staff, he added.

“Top tier international investment banking is an important extension to CIMB Group’s ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] universal banking platform,” said Nazir, who is also president commissioner of PT Bank CIMB Niaga (BNGA).

The acquisition will give CIMB seats on nine stock exchanges and partnerships in three others, with research covering about 1,093 Asia Pacific-based companies “and we will see a big increase in global institutional investor relationships”, according to Nazir.

“CIMB’s expanded investment banking franchise will enable us to assist investors and businesses who want to move in and out of ASEAN or across Asia Pacific as a whole,” Nazir said.

CIMB in 2005 acquired Singapore-based GK Goh Securities Pte. Ltd. to form an international investment banking operation called CIMB-GK Securities with securities operations and an investment banking presence in key ASEAN markets, as well as representations in New York, London, Shanghai, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Colombo and Bahrain.

“The addition of the RBS units will mean that, upon regulatory approval, CIMB will have a new on-shore presence in Taiwan and Australia, as well as substantially enlarged operations in Hong Kong, India and China,” CIMB’s statement reads.

—JP/ Esther Samboh