SMEs leverage Standard Chartered’s global network and expertise to achieve growth
Bank’s financial services and partnership with consultancy Altios help Singapore-headquartered company TFE expand into India
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How Standard Chartered empowers SMEs with resources and insights to go global
Expanding overseas can be a lengthy and tricky process for any company. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), dealing with complex cross-border regulations and business practices may be even more challenging.
Yet SMEs that find the right partners, which offer expert financial solutions and global market insights, can ensure their path to growth is much smoother.
One such business is Total Facility Engineering (TFE), an engineering solutions provider and semiconductor specialist founded in Singapore in 2013. The company, which now has about 170 employees across Asia, decided to expand into India to meet growing demand in the country’s emerging advanced manufacturing sector.
“We started to notice the potential of the Indian market a few years ago,” Chiang Siang Yong, TFE’s co-founder and managing director, says.
“We wanted TFE to be there in the early stages of India’s semiconductor boom, but the problem was that we had little knowledge of the market. We needed to understand its taxation system, incorporation procedures and how to hire people with the right expertise and skill sets.”
To help the company overcome these hurdles, a three-way partnership between Standard Chartered, Altios and TFE was created to empower the engineering solutions provider with the resources, tools and insights necessary to enter the Indian market with confidence.
Together, Standard Chartered and consultancy Altios enabled TFE to enter the India market with ease, especially when it came to setting up multicurrency accounts and banking relationships across various markets. As TFE was already the bank’s existing client in Singapore, the bank accounts for its Indian branch were set up in just one month, while it was recognised as a legal entity in the country within two months.
Chiang says the bank’s continuing support has been crucial to TFE’s daily operations in India. “What impressed me is that Standard Chartered has a very user-friendly system that has allowed us to make transactions and approvals remotely from Singapore,” he says. “This allows us to have better visibility of our cash flow and also [enables us to have better] financial planning.”
Sebastian Hia, the bank’s global head of SME Banking sales and head of SME Banking in Singapore, says TFE’s successful business expansion into India serves as a perfect example for other companies wishing to develop their operations abroad, especially considering the current global economic challenges including the volatile geopolitical environment, higher tariffs and rapid technological change.
“Our colleagues’ expertise in understanding the different markets’ regulatory requirements helps to ensure that the proposed financing solutions make sense,” he says, adding that the bank’s SME Banking team in India has been an integral part of TFE’s success. “We also provide regular market updates to clients to allow them to implement their strategy in the right manner.
“Altios is also there to support our clients throughout the ‘onboarding’ process, such as with the incorporation.”
Last June, Standard Chartered established a strategic partnership with Altios to support the international expansion of the bank’s SME clients, which allows them to gain access to cross-border services including creating market entry strategies, finding local distributors and partners, and offering hands-on operational support in Hong Kong, India, mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.
“We are very excited to partner with Altios,” Hia says. “Besides onboarding, our clients can also leverage Altios’ expertise in market strategies and compliance to gain a better understanding of their target markets and expedite their expansion plans.”
Roxie Wang, Altios’ head of business development for Southeast Asia, says her company’s partnership with Standard Chartered enables them to provide “coordinated solutions and support” to SMEs.
“In TFE’s case, Altios provided the strategy, operational support and regulatory navigation while Standard Chartered brought its extensive international network and a deep financial expertise,” she says. “In the end, being able to support TFE in establishing a local presence and becoming operational in India within just three months was a real success.”
Chiang says TFE is now exploring ways to enhance its partnership with Standard Chartered and Altios, including in areas such as project financing and talent recruitment.
“I do believe this partnership model can be duplicated in other countries in future if we’re looking to further expand,” he says.