Bank of Singapore completes acquisition of Barclays' wealth business at a lower price

BANK of Singapore (BOS), the private banking unit of OCBC Bank, has completed the acquisition of the wealth and investment management (WIM) businesses of Barclays plc in Singapore and Hong Kong for a lower price than stated earlier.

BOS announced in April it had bought Barclays' private bank business in Hong Kong and Singapore in a US$320 million cash deal. On Monday, it said the purchase price - which was set at 1.75 per cent of the assets under management (AUM) transferred upon completion - is now at US$227.5 million, because not all of Barclays' private banking clients in Hong Kong agreed to a transfer.

As at April 7, 2016, the day the agreement was signed, Barclays' WIM businesses in Singapore and Hong Kong had AUM of about US$17.5 billion. Eventually, only about US$13 billion in AUM was successfully transferred to BOS.

BOS said: "With an already large AUM base of US$62 billion as at Sept 30, 2016, the additional AUM brings the total AUM for Bank of Singapore to more than US$75 billion. In addition, more than 60 bankers have been added to the deep bench strength at Bank of Singapore," it said.

Two former senior Barclays employees have been appointed members of the BOS management committee. Singapore-based Vikram Malhotra and Hong Kong-based Andrew Sum came on board as global market heads. The changes bring the staff strength at BOS to more than 1,800 employees.