Bloomberg expands PHL operations

Global financial information provider Bloomberg is expanding its Philippines office and will bring in more training support to prepare existing and prospective clients for continued economic growth and the regional integration.

In a briefing held in Makati City Wednesday, Bloomberg head sales for  ASEAN and South Asia Nitin Jaiswal told reporters the Philippines has been one of the company's best performing markets.

"One reason is the economy is doing well and people have seen the value proposition Bloomberg has to offer in terms of really catalyzing what market has to offer," he said.

"As the Philippines continues its growth trajectory, critical to further  development is access to reliable news, data and analytics to make informed investment decisions and electronic solutions to execute them seamlessly," he added.

Its client base in the Philippines expanded by 10 percent in 2013, driven by growth from corporations, foreign exchange market and risk management segment, Jaiswal said.

To-date, Bloomberg has 319,000 clients globally.

Last year, the Philippine economy registered a 7.2 percent growth, above government's goal of 6 to 7 percent and the fastest since 7.7 percent in 2009.

The healthy growth in its client base drove Bloomberg to expand its office to be able to bring in more specialists for making investment decisions.

"We wanted to make sure we continue provide the same kind of service support. It allows us to fly in more specialists from Singapore to come in and help the clients," Jaiswal said.

"It is now on par with global standard of Bloomberg," he added.

The enlarged office will now have a state-of-the-art training room, where in-depth training will be provided for all users.

Apart from its Manila office, Jaiswal said Bloomberg also expanded it offices in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia to ride on the growth and integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) region.

"ASEAN is the fastest growing market in the world so we are working with ASEAN group in terms of education...because an issue raised is the level of sophistication in the local market," he added.

By 2015, the ASEAN member countries envision an “Asean Economic Community” operating as a single market and distribution base to compete and be integrated into the global economy.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.  — ELR, GMA News