M and A
OCBC Completes Acquisition Of Australian Bank's Wealth Arm In Hong Kong
One of the private banking consolidation moves to have affected the Asian business in recent years has been completed.
Singapore-listed Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, parent of Bank of Singapore, has completed the acquisition of National Australia Bank’s private wealth business in Hong Kong, coming about two weeks after finishing the purchase of NAB’s business in Singapore.
The deal was originally agreed in May.
NAB, which is headquartered in Melbourne, has spun off business arms and consolidated operations in a number of areas, an approach also taken by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, which last year sold its Asian private bank and retail banking arms. The transaction is among a number of Asia-based private banking M&A deals featuring players such as Societe Generale, DBS, ABN AMRO and Barclays.
Another trend in view is of Hong Kong- and mainland-based business groups buying European private banks. For example, Legend Holdings, which owns PC maker Lenovo and which also owns a number of financial businesses, recently agreed to buy 90 per cent of Banque Internationale a Luxembourg for €1.48 billion ($1.76 billion), marking another move by a Chinese conglomerate to buy European wealth management operations.
n the case of that deal, BIL, which was bought by Qatar-based private equity house Precision Capital in late 2012 from Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, joined the ranks of European private banks in Chinese hands. Hong Kong-listed Fosun International, for example, has acquired such businesses, buying European wealth management and private banking operations; it agreed to buy Hauck & Aufhäuser, the venerable German private banking and financial firm, for example. While Chinese authorities have sought to curb certain capital outflows in recent months, the acquisition of a foreign private bank could be seen as a way for certain groups to ensure capital can, in certain circumstances, still circulate.
Mason Group Holdings in October agreed to buy Raiffeisen Privatbank Liechtenstein for SFr58.6 million ($60 million).
