Goldman Sachs in Malaysia

From the Business Times:

MALAYSIA has given U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs licences to set up fund management and advisory operations in the country, as the Southeast Asia nation competes for foreign investments.

The licences were given as part of the liberalisation measures announced by Prime Minister Najib Razak earlier this year, the country’s securities regulator, Securities Commission Malaysia , said in a statement today.

Goldman Sachs’ entry “demonstrates the group’s confidence in the growth opportunities available in the Malaysian capital market,” said the SC.

Other global financial companies such as JPMorgan and Credit Suisse already operate in Malaysia.

“We look forward to playing a larger role in their development,” Leissner said in the SC statement.

Malaysia in June unveiled a raft of measures to boost investment in the slumping economy and lift a laggard stock market, including waiving the condition that local companies should reserve 30 per cent of any post-IPO share sale to Malay investors.

Corporate activity in Malaysia is expected to rise next year and bolster the stock market, analysts say.

Malaysia this year saw Southeast Asia’s biggest ever IPO after the US$3.3 billion offering by Maxis Bhd the country’s biggest mobile provider.

Malaysia is the worst-performing market in Asia so far this year, up just 44 per cent, compared to Indonesia’s more than 80 per cent gain and Thailand’s 56 per cent rise. - Reuters

Wow...looks like Goldman Sachs is coming to Malaysia. I think competitors should be scared. The great vampire squid is coming to town:

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

That doesn't paint a pretty picture. Well, after all the bad media, they try to paint themselves in a better light in that they are doing God's work. Oops, just a little too bright. Now they are declaring themselves holy to the world.

When it comes from their CEO, the statement will almost be certainly taken out of context. Seems to me he seriously misjudged how many people still felt betrayed by the government with their tax payer dollars paid out in bonuses to Goldman Sachs.

Anyways, with so much notoriety, they feel like they can be accepted in a country such as Malaysia. Perhaps, maybe they'll be welcomed with open arms as people generally go to those who can get them the most money. Go with Goldman, their reputation to win at any cost, and you can't lose, or can you?