Citibank (NYSE:C) recently said they’re looking at increasing their investment in India, which would even further their lead as far as the largest foreign investor in the country concerning the financial services industry.
While not completely ignored, India has largely been a weak second cousin to China, mostly because of the entrenched bureaucracy which makes it extremely difficult to do business there, as well as everything in the market being slower.
China has its own foreign investment problems of course, they’re just not as deep, daunting or complex as India’s are. China also has a much stronger financial base to work from in contrast to India.
That isn’t stopping Citigroup via its Citibank subsidiary from increasing its investment in India and looking to expand its operations in the country.
A Citibank official commented recently that they “plan to infuse a substantial amount of capital into our Indian operations by March. This will equip us in a better way to go ahead with our business expansion here.”
At this time Citibank has invested somewhere around $3.1 billion in the India market, not including the planned increase being talked about in this article. Approximately $2.4 billion of that has been in their banking division.
Citibank employs close to 10,000 people in India, with its primary focus on large multinational and domestic businesses, with an estimated 1,500 being served. They also have a growing presence with smaller business, with about 2,500 under their wing.
On the retail banking side, Citibank has a presence in 28 Indian cities with 42 branches open for business. There are also more than 450 Citibank ATMs scattered across India serving the financial market.
Most of this is in response to an growing interest in serving the India market by its major competitors, and so Citibank is attempting to circumvent them by not sitting around and waiting, and instead taking a more aggressive approach in a market that could pay off for them decades into the future.
