- Honeywell Profit in Line; Sees Tough Economy
- Main Street's Sour Loans Surge
- Bernanke: Had to 'Hold My Nose' Over Bailouts
- Kuwait Financier Facing US Fraud Suit Found Dead
- Ryanair Quarter Profit Up 550%, Lowers FY Forecast
- Citi Public Exchange Offer Gets 99% Shares
- Corporate Credit Conditions Have Improved: BoE
- Aetna's Profit Slides on Commercial Medical Costs
- RadioShack's Quarterly Profit Beats Expectations
- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Rallies to 6-Month Closing High
- Market 360: The Week's Best & Worst
- Hirschhorn: Manage Risk or it Will Manage You
- If FINA Ruling Holds, Business Would Change
- Homeownership Society: All in Good Time
- Compliments, Complaints, and the Obama T-Shirt Mystery
- Art Cashin: Dow 10,000 Possible Near-Term
- When Does Palm Stop Acting As Apple Wanna-be?
- Dunkelberg: 'To Raise the Cost of Labor, What is Congress Thinking?'
Text Size 
Standard Chartered is in talks to purchase assets in China and India owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
 |
Sharon Lorimer |
StanChart's [HBC
Loading...
()
] pursuit of the units comes as RBS tries to wrap up the sale of its retail and commercial banking divisions in Asia.
The initial plan was to sell the entire group to one buyer for at least $2 billion. But that effort failed, and the process is now focused on selling various parts to separate buyers, sources involved with the process say.
ANZ, Australia's fourth-largest lender, said in May that it had submitted a non-binding bid for the RBS assets and had raised A$2.5 billion (US$2 billion) in a share sale to both fund the acquisition and strengthen its balance sheet.
ANZ is in talks to buy RBS units in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia, according to a Bloomberg report. The report said StanChart was eyeing the RBS Malaysian assets too.
Edinburgh-based RBS [HBC
Loading...
()
] is refocusing on its core businesses and plans to exit or shrink in up to 36 of the countries where it operates. The bailed-out bank, now 70 percent owned by the UK government, is selling its commercial and retail banking units in Asia, and keeping its investment banking business.
"We are well advanced with the sale process, however due to regulatory constraints and the confidentiality of the process we will not be commenting on any individual bidders or elements of the transaction process until its completion," RBS spokeswoman Yuk Min Hui said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.
More From CNBC.com
- Japanese Businesses Are Less Pessimistic: Tankan Survey
- Soros Predicts 'Stop-Go' Economy, Higher Rates
- Lloyds To Cut Another 1,800 Jobs in Next 3 Years
- More Asia Pacific News
The Asian assets for sale include 28 branches in India, where RBS has more than 1.3 million customers; 20 in Indonesia, where it has the largest foreign-owned bank network; and 17 in Taiwan, serving over 1 million customers. RBS has 13 branches in China.
RBS is likely to fetch close to $1 billion from the sale of its Asian assets than the $2 billion that had earlier been expected, Reuters has reported.
The three main contenders for the Asia assets have been ANZ, HSBC Holdings [HBC
Loading...
()
] and Standard Chartered. It was not clear on Wednesday where HSBC stood in the process. The bank could not be reached immediately for comment.
"We have already earlier this year said publicly that we were involved in that process, but the outcome at this stage is unknown," ANZ spokesman Kevin Foley said on Wednesday, adding that ANZ is still in talks with RBS.
Print
Email
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes