SINGAPORE, July 9 (Reuters) - Singapore bank DBS Group's CEO Piyush Gupta said on Tuesday U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, if he wins, would be open to cutting deals, which could suit China.
Gupta, who made the comments in an interview at the Reuters NEXT forum in Singapore, was responding to a question on Sino-U.S. relations after the U.S. presidential elections.
"Trump is a dealmaker... he will be happy to be cutting deals and I think that's something that's helpful because the Chinese also like to cut deals," Gupta said.
Despite growing geopolitical risks, Gupta said DBS remained optimistic on Asia because its regional economic growth rates of 4% to 5% were almost double the rates recorded elsewhere in the world.
DBS is the largest bank in Singapore and Southeast Asia by asset size.
The bank is now the largest shareholder in China's Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank, which it said gave it a good footprint in the Greater Bay Area, according to its annual report published in March.
"It's a nice bank, it's wholly in Shenzhen ... we are the largest shareholder, it's in the small to medium enterprise (SME) space, it has nothing in property or real estate, it's relatively clean," Gupta said when asked if DBS wanted to increase its ownership stake.
"Over time as it grows, there is an agenda for it to IPO. We are so bullish on the Greater Bay Area ... we think activity is good. We think it's a great platform.
"But before we do that there is opportunity for two-way flow of business, and frankly our returns on our investment are great."
To view the live broadcast of the World Stage go to the Reuters NEXT news page: https://www.reuters.com/world/live-video-reuters-next-apac-2024-07-09/ (Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui and Sameer Manekar; Writing by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
