Standard Chartered said that it has completed the sale of its principal finance real estate business in Asia to private equity firm Actis. The lender was in talks to sell the rest of the business, outside Asia, to Intermediate Capital Group (ICG), a source with direct knowledge of the deal said. It was reported that the business has around £548.9 million in investments across Asia and Africa.
A spokesman for the bank confirmed the completion of the Actis deal, but declined to comment on the prospective ICG deal. Actis and ICG also declined to comment on their respective transactions.
The 20-strong StanChart team in Asia will join Actis, the source said. It was reported that the two parties had reached a provisional agreement on the deal, as StanChart looks to offload its principal finance business to focus on its core corporate and retail banking businesses. London-based alternative asset manager ICG had 32.9 billion euros (£29.5 billion) in assets under management at the end of June across a number of private equity, credit and debt strategies.
