Barclays Bank plans to open a Moscow office and expand to gain a bigger share of Russia's investment banking business, Hans-Joerg Rudloff, chairman of Barclays Capital, said yesterday.
Speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Rudloff said: "We want to open a local presence this year and expand it quickly."
Barclays Capital, which won its first loan in Russia in February 2005, fell three places to the seventh in terms of arranging Russian syndicated loans this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
However, ABN Amro, the Dutch bank that Barclays is vying with Royal Bank of Scotland to buy, is the top-ranked underwriter of Russian loans.
Rudloff said he was "very confident" of Barclay's chances to buy ABN Amro, but declined to say whether Barclays may raise its bid or seek a partner to help fend off a rival offer from the group led by Royal Bank of Scotland. Royal Bank, Santander Central Hispano and Fortis offered 71bn on May 29 for ABN Amro, trumping an earlier agreement with Barclays that now values the Dutch bank at about 65.6bn.
Rudloff added: "We are working on an industrial concept and not on a concept to break up the business."
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