*Hinduja Group* is making a bid of $2 Bn to acquire *KBL European Private Bankers*. Brazilian Safra, Italian Exor, PE firm – KKR and Swiss bank Julius Baer are the others bidders for the bank.
The acquisition could be made through *Hinduja Swiss Holding Ltd*, which is the holding company of Hinduja Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. Other majors like Credit Agricole, Societe Generale, Barclays and Banco Santander have dropped out of the bidding process. Transaction Reference: BS<http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=388795> Transaction Note KBL European Private Bankers - with over $65 Bn in AUM - is owned by Belgium based *KBC*. Founded in 1998, KBC Group deals mainly with retail customers, SMEs and private banking clients with a large presence in Belgium, as well as in Central and Eastern Europe. KBC was also a victim of the financial crises. It booked huge losses in subprime loans and suffered from lending aggressively in Eastern Europe, especially Hungary and had to be bailed out by the Belgian government and the Flemish regional government by pumping in 7 Bn euros. In return, KBC pledged a sharp scaling down of its merchant banking business, sale of private banking and a string of divestments, while keeping its core bancassurer model intact. Since then it has been selling some of its businesses to come out of the mess. It has put its PE unit – KBC Private Equity, London based brokerage unit and corporate finance house – KBC Peel Hunt up for sale. KBL European Private Bankers is a group of 8 private banks spread across Europe. It offers wealth management services. It has banks in Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Hinduja Group has diversified business interests including banking, Automotives, ITes and others. It has its presence in the Indian Banking sector through *IndusInd Bank*. It also operates Hinduja Bank from Switzerland, with branches in London, Paris, Dubai, Mauritius and New York. Earlier in the year, Hinduja Swiss Holding Ltd acquired Banca Commerciale Lugano. It had also acquired a majority stake in Paterson Securities Pvt. Ltd in 2009. -- Regards Hardik Shah -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en.
