Antwerp Diamond Bank scouts for buyer for India branch

MUMBAI: Antwerp Diamond Bank (ADB), which is in the process of winding down operations across the world, is looking at selling its India operations, a top company official said today.
Last September the Brussels-based KBC Group which owns ADB announced that it would wind down its loan portfolio and activities across the world, including India.

It has a branch in Mumbai and extends loans to diamond traders.

"The process is going on. If there are some acceptable propositions we will go ahead and sell India operations," ADB India chief executive Karl De Borger told PTI. He said the prospective buyer would likely be a bank.

The ADB started its operations in 2001 here and has a sole branch in Mumbai with 33 employees.

It serves around 100 clients from the domestic diamond industry, making it one of the largest foreign lenders to the sector.

The KBC decided to sell ADB after it failed to sell it to the Shanghai-based Yinren Group.

"Given that the sale of ADB to the Yinren Group could not be successfully completed, KBC has decided, in implementation of the agreement made with the European Commission, to run down the loan portfolio and activities of ADB in a gradual and orderly manner," ADB had said in a release last September.