UOB's Emphasis on Southeast Asia Should Drive Future Growth
United Overseas Bank is one of the three dominant banks in Singapore. Compared with its two rivals, it has somewhat smaller exposure to Greater China, while it has larger exposure to Association of Southeast Asian Nations markets outside Singapore than Singapore's largest bank, DBS. UOB's scale in Asean grew further following its acquisition of Citibank's Asean consumer businesses (wealth management and retail deposits) in 2022-23. We think UOB now has sufficient scale in Malaysia and Thailand to compete effectively with the largest local banks in these markets. With the integration largely completed, management shared that its next phase of growth will focus on increasing assets under management and invested AUM penetration of the enlarged customer base, driving wealth business income to double from 2025 to 2030. We believe this should help UOB narrow the gap with its crosstown peers in wealth management fee growth.
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