DBS to buy SocGen's Asian private bank: sources

Hong Kong

SINGAPORE'S DBS Group Holdings has agreed to buy Societe Generale's (SocGen) Asian private bank for about US$250 million, with an announcement expected as early as Monday, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The deal with the French bank would help DBS to boost its private banking assets by almost a third to about US$60 billion.

The acquisition would turn DBS into Asia's sixth or seventh-largest private bank in an industry dominated by UBS and Citigroup. It would be the third major deal in Asia's competitive private banking landscape since the global financial crisis. Media reports said in January that DBS was in advanced talks with SocGen for a deal that would be DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta's first since Indonesian regulators blocked his planned purchase of PT Bank Danamon last year.