OCBC to Buy Barclay's Wealth Management Unit in Singapore, Hong Kong

SINGAPORE—Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. said Thursday its private-banking unit has signed a deal to buy Barclays PLC's wealth and investment management business in Singapore and Hong Kong for US$320 million in cash.

The purchase price is equivalent to 1.75% of Barclays' wealth assets under management in Singapore and Hong Kong. The assets under management, which total about US$18.3 billion, will be transferred to Bank of Singapore, OCBC's private-bank unit, Singapore's second-biggest bank by assets said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange.

The deal will allow OCBC to increase its share of the wealth-management business in Asian financial centers at a time when it is seeking to grow in its four key markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and greater China.

OCBC and banks across Asia are jostling to manage the growing assets of the region's wealthy families and entrepreneurs. They are expanding in this area as persistently low interest rates have crimped revenues from lending, and as revenues from investment banking and trading have faltered this year amid careening markets and a lackluster landscape for many deals.

At the same time, banks in recent years have consolidated in the crowded market. For its part, Barclays last month said it was planning to exit its Asian wealth business as part of its strategy to shore up its sprawling operations and concentrate on the units it deems core.

"The sale of our Wealth and Investment Management business in Singapore and Hong Kong marks further progress in our aggressive pursuit of noncore cost and risk-weighted asset reductions," Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley said.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC last year sold its Coutts International wealth management business to Geneva-based Union Bancaire Privee. Socié té Gé né rale in 2014 sold its Asian private banking business to Singapore's DBS Group Holdings Ltd.

Bank of Singapore's assets under management will rise 33.3% to US$73.3 billion with the addition of Barclays' wealth business, OCBC said.

Around 450 employees at Barclays—spread throughout Singapore, Hong Kong and offshore teams in London and Dubai—will be affected, a person familiar with the deal said. It wasn't immediately clear how many of the employees will move to Bank of Singapore.

The transaction, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year, is subject to approval from the Singapore High Court for the transfer of the Singapore business, OCBC said.

Bank of Singapore was formed in 2010 after OCBC acquired ING Asia Private Bank and combined it with its existing private banking business.

Write to Gaurav Raghuvanshi at [e-mail] and Julie Steinberg at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 07, 2016 02:35 ET (06:35 GMT)

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