Bloomberg
DBS Group Holdings, Southeast Asia’s largest lender, is working with Citigroup as it studies a potential bid for the international business of Royal Bank of Scotland Group’s private bank, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The Singapore bank’s deliberations are still at an early stage and it hasn’t made a final decision on whether to proceed with an offer for Coutts International, said the people, who asked not to be named as the process is private.
DBS completed its $220mn purchase of Societe Generale SA’s Asian wealth-management business in October, boosting its assets under management by about 15% to S$88bn ($67bn). Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta said on October 31 that his bank would “take a look” at the Coutts business when it’s put up for sale.
“RBS may be able to sell the unit for a price in the low hundreds ofmns of pounds, but is unlikely to crystallise any meaningful gain or loss on any disposal,” said Ian Gordon, an analyst at Investec Plc in London, who has a sell rating on the stock. Edna Koh, a spokeswoman for DBS, declined to comment.
RBS shares rose 0.9% to 398.20 pence at 11:25am in London. They have increased about 18% this year.
RBS, Britain’s largest state-owned lender, said in a memo to employees in August that it was selling Coutts’s overseas business as it shifts its focus to wealthy clients in the UK. The bank is also examining options including joint ventures or merging Coutts International, according to the memo.
Coutts International had 32.6bn Swiss francs ($33.5bn) of assets under management at the end of 2013, little changed from the previous year, according to an annual study by Scorpio Partnership.