Singapore DBS says China bank buy unlikely-paper

SINGAPORE, Aug 13 (Reuters) - DBS Group Holdings (DBSM.SI) does not plan to buy a bank in China and will instead focus on expanding its existing businesses, a newspaper on Wednesday quoted the Singapore bank's chief executive as saying.

"I don't think it's feasible in the foreseeable future to control a local bank," Chief Executive Richard Stanley said in an interview with the Straits Times.

"China is a tremendous opportunity, but it's a difficult market."

The newspaper said Stanley, 47, who worked for Citigroup (C.N) in China before taking over at DBS in May, named Taiwan, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia as growth markets for DBS.

The bank, Southeast Asia's biggest, earns 90 percent of its earnings in Hong Kong and Singapore. Stanley said he is "okay" with maintaining this status for a while.

"Coming into the job, I thought in my mind that the main opportunities were going to be in China, India, Indonesia and the other bigger markets," he said. "But the main surprise for me, strategically, is that we have a lot more to do in Singapore and Hong Kong, our core markets." (Reporting by Jan Dahinten)