Press speculation starts on banks that might be considering an offer for the private bank of ABN AMRO in Asia, reportedly now up for sale. The bank has declined to comment.

Following media speculation that Netherlands-headquartered lender ABN AMRO is looking to dispose of its Asian private bank, the rumour mill has started turning around who may be suitors for this unit, including DBS and Julius Baer.

A report by Reuters said that ABN AMRO, which returned to the stock market last November after being in government hands since the 2008 financial crisis, said Singapore-headquartered DBS and Zurich-listed Julius Baer were both considering bids for the business that oversees about $20 billion in assets. The news service cited unnamed sources. It said the Dutch bank has engaged Lazard to handle a sale.

ABN AMRO declined to comment when contacted by this publication.

A sale could produce a price of between $300 million and $350 million, or 1.50-1.75 per cent of assets under management, senior M&A bankers said, citing valuations for similar deals, the Reuters report said.
If a disposal happens, ABN AMRO will join Societe Generale and Barclays in having sold Asian private banking businesses. (SocGen sold its business to DBS in 2014; OCBC, parent of Bank of Singapore, bought the Hong Kong and Singapore private banking businesses of Barclays earlier this year.) 

An issue has been the ability of such banks to achieve sufficient scale to justify the cost of doing business in what is an expensive, if large, market. The Singapore market, for example, faces headwinds at present caused by developments such as the Indonesia tax amnesty – drawing billions of dollars from Singapore – and a harsher regulatory climate as Singapore cracks down on illicit money transactions from Malaysia.