Citigroup gets ready for Asia investment surge with new China desk

Citigroup Inc will set up a China business desk in India within the year, betting on a pickup in investment flows within the Asian region, its AsiaPacific corporate banking head said, as concerns grow over the impact of the China-US trade war.

Citi plans to establish the desk in India’s Mumbai, adding to a South Korean business desk in its capital New Delhi, corporate banker Gerald Keefe told Reuters. The desks provide services such as trade, finance, corporate loans, cash management and investment banking.

Chinese firms, mainly from tech and pharmaceutical sectors, have been looking to deepen their push into growth markets such as India, with its rising middle-class income and increased spending on big-ticket goods, bankers said.

The drive comes as the US is set to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, with China responding in kind. In the latest move, the US threatened to impose a 10 percent duty on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

Investors fear a protracted trade war will be detrimental to global growth, but Keefe said investment and trade is growing elsewhere across Asia, and that Citi intends to capitalize on that through its banking network.

“There’s an increasing and absolute amount of investment flow around Asia right from companies that are headed out of China, from companies that are headquartered elsewhere in Asia who are of scale,” Keefe said in a recent interview.

Citi has about 20 business desks supporting investments by companies from China, South Korea and India, into places including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi, as well as New York, London and Johannesburg.

Plans for additional China desks in Europe and Africa are being finalized, Keefe said.

Keefe said there was growing investment from China in India, where global automakers are raising production capacity.