In January 2015 CIMB Group’s international position was relatively strong but there were still issues that needed to be addressed. CIMB Niaga, the group’s subsidiary in Indonesia, had performed well until 2014 when it faced a setback due to bad loans to the coal sector. The group had clearly overpaid for CIMB Thai, which had grown at a slower pace than projected when it was acquired in 2008. CIMB Singapore had performed well since it began expanding in 2009. Furthermore, the group did not have a banking presence in the Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar and needed to address this. The acquisition of G.K. Goh had enabled the group to establish market leading positions in stockbroking in ASEAN. However, the group’s attempt to replicate this elsewhere in Asia by acquiring the Asian cash equities and investment banking operations of the Royal Bank of Scotland had failed. The group’s offices outside ASEAN primarily focused on stockbroking and investment banking. CIMB Islamic had established itself as the leading global Islamic investment bank and had also established banking franchises in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. The group had made considerable progress toward its goal of being an ASEAN universal bank, but what international strategy should it adopt going forward?
