2/22/2021

DBS In Hot Soup In India?

 DBS In Hot Soup In India?

It certainly looks like DBS, with an original Indian Chief at the helm, has got itself into very hot and spicy Indian curry soup.

UOB Kay Hian has released a report on 19 Feb 2021, suggesting that DBS would be suffering from “more headaches from lawsuits in India”.

DBS plunges itself into the Indian Ocean of deep troubles when it went ahead to acquire the failing Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) in India last November.

It was a like a shot-gun marriage initiated by the Central Bank of India. to force DBS India to merger with LVB in order to rescue LVB from certain collapse.

Immediately after DBS India merged with LVB, Religare Finvest Limited (RFL) of India filed a petition with the Delhi High Court to make DBS India a respondent in its ongoing lawsuit with LVB, on the ground of the merger of the two banks (‘Firm petitions court to make DBS responsible for LVB’s embezzlement of S$130m of its FDs‘).

Prior to DBS’ acquisition of LVB, 2 employees of LVB were already arrested last year for their alleged involvement in the misappropriation of RFL’s fixed deposits from the bank.

A total amount of some Rs 729 crore (S$132 million) belonging to RFL was alleged to have been embezzled by the 2 senior LVB staff.

In fact, RFL reported the matter to the Indian police back in 2018.

It was alleged that the staff colluded with external parties in siphoning off RFL’s fixed deposit money from the bank.

Subsequent investigation is said to have uncovered grave irregularities and severe violation of regulations at LVB.

The claim amount by RFL has swelled to Rs 900 crore (S$164m) due to compounding of interest.

The next hearing of the case is scheduled to be heard next Thursday (25 Feb).

There are also other similar cases still outstanding. How many more such claims against DBS will there be? Your guess is as good as mine.

Maybe CPIB should make an investigation into the background of how this funny deal was negotiated and who were those involved?

What will be the implications to Temasek Holdings?

SSO

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

The least to be done when taking over a failing company is to absolved one from frauds and debt by the former company. Conditional on liability limited to known debt, not unknown debt. This is basic. No one would take over a failed company and even willing to take over all its debt, could be a bottomless pit.

Did DBS protect itself from such claims? If not, why?

Anonymous said...

The stupid would not learn. Did they learn anything from the fiasco of putting good money after bad money during the financial crisis when the American and European banks came knocking and asking for financial help, ie, throwing away hundreds of millions without due diligence and later found out that their debt were horrendous? How much was lost then?

Now in this LVB case, how much is DBS stand to lose when it needed not waste a cent and carry all the burden of lawsuits and headache? Why throw away hundreds of millions for all the trouble and possibly more money down the drain?

Anonymous said...

Ya hor, why never protect their asshole? Drop pants and happily let people screwed.
OPM, never mind?

Anonymous said...

They probably had planed all along to unload the shit onto DBS India, knowing that the RFL of India fraud claims against the LVB is sure to sink the bank. That will be big trouble for the Central Bank of India, if depositors were to lose their savings with the bank. They will run amok and riots will ensue. Indian banks have the habit of being defrauded by their own talented banking fraudsters.

If no other Indian Banks want to dip their fingers into LVB with such a sordid history, they had to look elsewhere and what better scapegoat than DBD India, the offspring of DBS Singapore headed by one 'ka ki nan'. From one forked tongue to another, it was plain sailing all along. Was DBS India duped, or forced to, by some invisible hand?

But now the shit has risen to the surface and the smell is overbearing. Temasek Holdings is one of the major shareholders of DBS Singapore. I wonder if the Jinx retirement anything to do with this fiasco?



Anonymous said...

KNN. Can never understand why pay hundreds of millions to invite all the trouble of being sued and sued, probably until pants drop.

What is the limit to the liabilities?

What has the govt got to say about this? Any MP dare to open his big mouth in Parliament to ask for accountability? Better to ask questions about hawkers and food courts and climate change.

Anonymous said...

They love open legs wide wide, inviting even fakes. Now one of their crown jewel will even be sued until their suspenders drop.

From resorting to suing others and getting to be sued is a painful experience. In Red Dot, DBS India may stand a chance in court. In India, well as they say, they have to do as the Indians say!

Anonymous said...

What has Iswaran gotta say? What has DPM Heng gotta say?

Anonymous said...

Invest more in India.

1984 George Orwell said...

Looks like there has been a sinister plot to completely take over full control of Singapore's financial sector by:

1. Taking over the control of the Monetary Authority Of Singapore.

2. Taking over the control of DBS Group.

3. Taking over the control of Temasek Holdings.

4. Taking over the control of GIC.

5. Taking over the control of Ministry of Finance.

6. Controlling the Prime Minister of Singapore by proxies.

Anonymous said...

Be careful not to go too racial. Singapore anti China FT defender Kirsten Han going around calling out on people for maligning FTs. She calls Lim Tean racist for the latter' appeal to cancel CECA.

Anonymous said...

How would CPIB investigate? It is just the left hand doing what the right hand tells it what to do. After all, such investigations will go far up the ladder? It is just too big and too hot to touch!

Further, who is going to start the ball rolling? The one initiating the start of the CPIB investigation may end up with too hot a curry meal and even get 'pants drop syndrome'.

SSO said...

Think.

The moment you accuse someone as racist, you already expose yourself as a racist.

Anonymous said...


Singapore must not be allowed to be Indianized and turn into an Indian colony. The government of Singapore and Singaporeans have a duty and responsibility to see that Singapore is not taken over by any foreign country through subterfuge and underhand conspiracy. It looks like there is a dark conspiracy by Indians to take over Singapore biggest bank through vicious subterfuge by means of fraud and deviating means. If fraud and black hands are discovered and confirmed in the conspiracy to defraud and swindle Singapore's DBS then the whole contract must be declared null and void and India must compensate Singapore to twice the equivalent of the sums lost and those involved in the handling of the draconic deal must be sentenced to long term imprisonment and pay a heavy fine commensurate to the sum of the deal or the millions or billions lost by Sinngapore's DBS. This DBS financial debacle in India confirms that Singapore banks should never be handled and managed by fraudulent foreigners. Will Singapore government open its eyes and be wiser in future.

A Singaporean patriot who feels very angry and indignant for DBS being swindled by the Indian government. Eagles Eyes

Anonymous said...

You think the imbeciles did not know what is happening?

They are very happy the way things are going.

Just because you don't agree does not mean that they don't agree.

Their agenda is different from your agenda.

What can you do about it?

Anonymous said...

Maybe they think the best thing for Singapore is to become a state of India.
You may not agree but you are not super talent, they are and they are cleverer than you and know what is good for Singapore.

Anonymous said...

Picture/video shows Indian soldiers carrying metal pipes coming out of hiding places and descending on unarmed Chinese soldiers at Galwan Valley, attacking Chinese soldiers first in the border clash in June 2020.

At the end of the fight, 20 Indian soldiers were killed instead, while 4 Chinese soldiers died. Another Chinese soldier drowned.

Anonymous said...

This video is the best proof to show the lying Indians and how treacherous and dishonest they were. They attacked the Chinese in huge numbers only to be repelled and suffered more deads.

And they blamed China for being the aggressor.

The video showed to the world who were the aggressor. And they kept bragging about a lot of Chinese casualties to save the humiliation of another defeat at the hands of the PLA. 600 Indians attacked the Chinese position and got beaten back by 150 PLA soldiers.

China was trying its best not to humiliate them by not disclosing its casualties but with the Indians trying so hard to run down the Chinese, finally China declared its death, 4 dead and 1 severely wounded against more than 20 dead, about a hundred Indians captured and returned with many wounded Indians.

The deescalation of the tension led to the withdrawal of troops from both sides. Before this, the Indians as usual, were bragging about how many tanks they had moved to the Sino Indian border to take on the PLA but were shocked when the Chinese pulled out 200 tanks in a day, outnumbering the 30 tanks the Indians had moved into the region and had difficulties withdrawing even after one week.

30 tanks and they were unable to move them. How to fight a war? China could bring back the 200 tanks in a day!

SSO said...

DBS-LVB Merger Facing Lawsuits In India


SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG):

"DBS Group Holdings, South-east Asia's largest lender, said it's facing lawsuits in India related to its recent takeover of a struggling local bank.

Holders of Lakshmi Vilas Bank's equity shares and Tier-II bonds that were written off before the effective date of amalgamation took legal actions against DBS's local unit in various high courts in India, the Singapore-based lender said in a reply to questions from Bloomberg News.

The acquisition was completed on Nov 27, DBS said earlier this month.

"DBS has no incremental unprovided risks on these lawsuits," it said. "Other legal liabilities in the normal course of business have also been suitably provided for."

DBS's Lakshmi Vilas acquisition was the first time the Reserve Bank of India turned to a foreign lender to bail out a local bank as India's financial industry suffered a series of shocks since the outbreak of a shadow banking crisis in 2018.

While the suits named DBS' India unit as a respondent, the primary respondents would be the Indian government and the RBI, who drafted and approved the amalgamation programme, according to DBS. An RBI spokesman declined to comment on the matter.

DBS chief executive officer Piyush Gupta expects Lakshmi Vilas to become profitable in 12 to 24 months as the Singapore bank sets aside amalgamation expenses and allowances for soured assets, he said at a Feb 10 earnings media briefing."



Comments:

This report by Bloomberg seems to be painting a rosy picture for DBS, despite the mounting number of law suits in various Indian Courts gathering momentum, like an avalanche of giant snowballs coming down fast and furious to bury DBS India alive and push it's body into a bottomless pit.

It appears that DBS CEO Piyush Gupta is full of confidence in his magical crystal-balling that DBS will make a profit in 12 to 24 months' time.

Question is, how much the profit will there be from the operations in he acquired LVB branches? Not DBS as a group.


SSO

Anonymous said...

There should be a commission of inquiry initiated by the President of Singapore into the operations of the DBS Group and in particular, DBS India.

Anonymous said...

Many countries are grounding the Boeing 777 because of the explosion of the engine in mid air immediately after takeoff.

Boeing is now in a shit-luck state. The Boeing 737 Max murderous issue has just cleared the hurdles and now this.

Anonymous said...

Why SIA's fleet of Boeing 777 not grounded yet? Waiting for accidents to happen first?

As usual, Reactive, not proactive.

Make money first. Passengers lives not so important?

Anonymous said...

Those planes have already been grounded for months. The real problem is they have been grounded for far too long due to the pandemic, and may be dangerous when they restart flying.

Metals rust, cables deteriorate, pipes get blocked and pilot's skill turn rusty as well. Sure they make visual inspections of those planes, but I doubt they go through any real flying by taking them up, considering there may be hundreds of planes parked on the ground.

When air travel restarts, I would not risk flying in them for at least for several months. For those brave enough, it is their life to gamble with. Good luck to them!

Anonymous said...

The planes were grounded for months and rats and cockroaches went into the engine compartments and make nests inside. They may have bitten the wires or choke the ventilation conduits. The problem is that the mechanics, technicians and engineers may not be able to detect the faults inside the engines.

Anonymous said...

America in decline . . .

Boeing 747 (not 777) cargo plane drops engine parts in Netherlands, investigation launched

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - An incident involving a Boeing 747-400 cargo plane that dropped engine parts after a mid-air explosion and fire over the southern Netherlands on Saturday is under investigation, the Dutch Safety Board said.

The Longtail Aviation cargo plane, flight 5504, scattered small metal parts over the Dutch town of Meerssen, causing damage and injuring a woman shortly after take-off, Maastricht Airport spokeswoman Hella Hendriks said.

The Bermuda-registered plane, which was headed from Maastricht to New York, was powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines, a smaller version of those on a United Airlines Boeing 777 involved in an incident in Denver, also on Saturday.

Anonymous said...

This takeover of LVB has made Singapore and DBS into a laughing stock. How could this happen? My goodness, did they know what they were doing or did they blindly rush into this takeover or forced into this takeover?

How could this happen to Singapore, to Singapore's national bank? What on earth is happening?

And no one in authority is saying a word about it. Hoping that it would miraculously blow away?

Is this a conspiracy that DBS and the Singapore garment do not know about?

Anonymous said...

Its s small losd for dbs lar as ot made billion in profit

Anonymous said...

Hahaha

Over the next couple of months if you happen to notice a plane flying overhead, run for cover. There may be things dropping from the sky liable to kill you. Is this good or bad for the insurance business? I think it works both ways.

Anonymous said...

Taking over LVB by DBS India was a good move, well for the Indians of course. The fact that Piyush Gupta is in charge of DBS Singapore has any bearing on this fiasco??? I wonder.

Anonymous said...

Pay them millionaires salaries to learn?
Lately, one big blunder after another. Why?

Still learning?

It's time to kick some asses.

Anonymous said...

The Indians must have been eyeing and plotting to swallow up DBS India for a long time. This is low hanging fruit for them to take in their home ground. Only stupidity has no cure idiots would allow this to happen, thinking that putting money in India, in the hands of Indians, is very safe. The Indians would not cheat them. They never cheat, all very honourable. They only cheat in exams and fake degrees.

What would happen to DBS India? Would it evaporate in mid air? Would anyone be held responsible for putting so much money in India with barely any control over it? What would happen if the Indian courts just pass judgments against DBS India and make it pay and pay until nothing is left?

Anonymous said...

This is looking like a reverse takeover of DBS India by the Indian government.

Anonymous said...

The Indian Government, the Indian Banks, the Indian Courts, are all birds of a feather.

Some of the big shareholders of Indian banks are from the elites of the establishment. They can twist the rules to commit fraud, like lending to one huge business group, whose failure will collapse the whole Bank. That has happened before. India is the bank fraud capital of the world. That has not changed nor taught anyone any lesson.

DBS India will be swallowed up, flesh, blood and bones. If not, it will be hung up to dry, milked, squeezed and flipped like a roti prata.

Anonymous said...

When Georgie boy in his naive idealism asked LKY to throw money into his great India, he was fucked by LKY good and proper. Now who is the other great fool that kept wanting to invest in India?

1984 George Orwell said...

RB, please delete it totally. I will rewrite it in a more palatable way. Thanks for your help.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

OK.

Anonymous said...

Down the road, what's there to stop the India government and Reserve Bank of India from mandating Singaporean bank DBS to conduct a second rescue takeover of a troubled Indian bank, a third rescue takeover or a fourth, etc to bail out Indian depositors, Indian creditors of the troubled bank, Indian employees of the troubled bank, etc, milking DBS dry ?

SSO said...

The posts of Chief Executive of all Central Banks of all countries on Planet Earth are usually fielded by very high calibre talents in their respective countries. These are highly educated, extensively trained and well-experienced leaders in the financial sectors or political play-grounds in their own rights. They have to be very calculative, cautious and highly intelligent, and even very wise, people.

Being calculative, cautious, intelligent and wise, therefore, the CEO of the Central Bank of India could not have acted arbitrarily and independently before making the final decision to make DBS India become the saviour of the collapsing LVB.

The CEO of the Central Bank of India, without doubt, must have confided and consulted with the CEO of the Central Bank of Singapore first, to discuss and to seek his views, endorsements and blessings.

The CEO of the Central Bank of India must have also, without any doubt, confided and consulted with the CEO of the DBS Singapore Group Holdings.

Only after the two Singapore's CEOs have given their blessings, then the CEO of the Central Bank of India acted. This must be the logical sequence of events.

Also in one way or anther, the Prime Ministers of both countries must have also been informed prior to the merger decree being dished out by the Central Bank of India.

So, whatever happens now, or subsequently, regarding the affairs of DBS India cannot be brushed aside as a mistake. It is not a mistake. It was an endeavour with calculated risks. It was a calculated decision, make or break.

Whether due diligence and feasibility studies and researches have been done before hand, and how long it took to do the feasibility studies and researches, is of no use now.

The bread has been baked. And if the ginger bread-boy decides to run away and gets himself eaten by the cunning fox, in the river, then so be it. No use crying over spilt milk.

The only solution now is either to make the best out of it, by turning losses into profits, or to simply cut losses early.