CIMB Standard Plans New Southeast Asia Fund, Turkey Office

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A private equity firm owned by South Africa’s Standard Bank (SBKJ.J) and Malaysia’s CIMB (CIMB.KL) hopes to double assets to over $1 billion by early 2011 by launching a new Southeast Asia fund and growing its existing Islamic fund, its chief executive officer said on Tuesday.

Johan Bastin, Singapore-based CEO of CIMB Standard Strategic Assets Advisors, said the firm plans to launch a $300 million Southeast Asia infrastructure fund next year and increasing its Islamic infrastructure fund to the target size of $500 million.

“We are already putting people in place,” he told Reuters in an interview, saying CIMB Standard is opening an office in Indonesia next month and will have an office in Turkey around the middle of next year to cover the Middle East.

“How we market ourselves is that we are Asia but not China and India. A lot of LPs (investors) are overextended in China and India and we see ourselves as a nice complement to their existing portfolios.”

CIMB Standard, which has offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, currently manages about $490 million in assets, including a $150 million Southeast Asia infrastructure fund and a $262 million Islamic infrastructure fund backed by the Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank. (Reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Kim Coghill)