Standard Chartered Ends Bid for ING Assets
Standard Chartered PLC has dropped out as a bidder in the contest to buy ING Groep NV's Swiss and Asian private banking business, according to people familiar with the situation.
HSBC Holdings PLC, Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer Holding AG and Singapore's DBS Group Holdings Ltd. are among other bidders that submitted binding offers, according to people familiar with the situation. The sale could fetch nearly $2 billion.
Credit Suisse Group dropped out of the auction before the deadline for binding bids on Sept. 3, according to people familiar with the situation.
ING had originally hoped to select a buyer for the business later this month, but that target has been pushed back, according to people familiar with the situation. The slowdown in the sale's timetable is due to a request from Singaporean regulators to vet potential buyers for the Asian business and ING's efforts to gauge the support of its private banking managers for the potential buyers, according to one person.
Still, the sale process appears to going smoothly despite the delays and bidder dropouts, these people say. An expected price tag of between $1.8 billion and $2 billion is near the seller's expectations at the start of the auction and represents close to 1.5 times book value for the assets.
People familiar with the situation say European banks appear to have an advantage in the bidding, possibly putting HSBC in line as the most likely taker for the assets.
ING and its adviser on the sale, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., gave bidders the option of making an offer for both the Swiss and Asian business or just one of the two units.
However, ING would prefer to sell the units together, according to another person close to the matter.
ING's sale of the two operations, expected to fetch just under $2 billion, will help the Dutch financial services firm pay down a €10 billion ($14.22 billion) lifeline it received from the Dutch government in October last year. ING is scaling down its operations and expects to raise between €6 billion and €8 billion by selling as many as 15 units.
Write to Sara Schaefer Munoz at Sara.Schaefer-Munoz@wsj.com and Rick Carew at rick.carew@wsj.com
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