Hong Kong-listed brokerage Emperor Capital Group has allied with Jakarta-listed financial house Hortus Danavest for cross referral of customers as well as merger and acquisition opportunities.
The alliance marks the first overseas foray of the brokerage, which has its headquarters and five branches in Hong Kong to serve 22,500 customers, mainly retail investors.
'The alliance helps kick off our regional expansion plan,' said Daisy Yeung, managing director of Emperor Capital. 'This will allow us to capture Indonesian customers who want to invest in mainland stocks through the Hong Kong market. Likewise, our Hong Kong clients could also invest in the Indonesia market through Hortus.'
Tom Chan Pak-lam, executive director of Emperor Capital, said the client referral marked the first step of co-operation with Hortus.
'In the future, we would consider developing other line-ups such as share swaps with each other, or we may team up to acquire other securities or financial institutions in other parts of Asia, such as Indonesia or Vietnam,' Mr Chan said.
Hortus, a medium-sized Indonesian stock broker and underwriter, has been priming for more action on the M&A scene.
On November 23, the company raised its stake in Pan Pacific International to 52.71 per cent from 1.71 per cent.