TOKYO : Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group will accelerate the integration of locally acquired businesses in Asia while eying further investments in an effort to create a major financial group in the region, its chief executive said.
Pushing forward with the plan, Sumitomo Mitsui announced a raft of deals this year, including a US$2 billion acquisition of an Indian non-bank lender and an investment in Vietnam's biggest non-bank lender. The team will be headquartered in Singapore and Tokyo, cooperating with those assigned to the four countries, he said.
Sumitomo Mitsui owns only minority stakes in some companies and it would also need securities businesses to make it a full-service financial group in the region, he said.The United Sates is another area of focus for Sumitomo Mitsui, whose small presence in the investment banking business there has resulted in a failure to fully benefit from a record wave of deals.