HSBC Holdings’s sale of its German wealth-management unit is attracting initial interest from peers including BNP Paribas and UBS Group, sources familiar with the matter said, as the London-listed lender looks to streamline its global footprint.
Julius Baer Group is also among those studying the business, which could be valued at 300 million euros (S$438 million) to 600 million euros in a deal, the sources said. HSBC is keen for a buyer with a global brand and existing operations in Germany for the wealth-management unit, which has about 26 billion euros in assets, one of the sources said. KPMG is helping HSBC on the sale, the source said.
Meanwhile, HSBC is working with Bank of America on the potential divestment of its German fund administration business Inka, one of the largest in the industry with about 400 billion euros of assets under administration, the sources said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.
Inka is currently being marketed to potential suitors alongside HSBC’s German custodian business and the duo could fetch several hundred million euros in a sale, one of the sources said. State Street and Universal Investment are among potential bidders that have been studying the assets, the sources said.
HSBC is exploring the sale of various businesses in Germany and its corporate-banking and trading activities in the country are not affected by the strategy review, Bloomberg News reported in April. Potential disposals would add to HSBC’s long list of exits from business activities and countries in recent years including in North America and its French retail operations, as part of the efforts to sharpen its focus on core operations in Asia.
Deliberations are ongoing and the potential bidders could still decide against making offers, the sources said. A spokesperson for HSBC said the bank’s German wealth management, fund administration and custodian businesses are under review, and no final decisions have been made.
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Representatives for BNP, Julius Baer, KPMG, UBS, State Street and Universal Investment declined to comment.
Several banking assets in Germany have changed hands recently. Barclays this week agreed to sell its German consumer finance business to Bawag Group, while ABN Amro Bank in May struck a deal for Fosun International’s German bank Hauck & Aufhauser Lampe Privatbank. BLOOMBERG
