Exclusive: StanChart sells real estate business to Actis and ICG

By Lawrence White

LONDON (Reuters) - Standard Chartered has completed the sale of its principal finance real estate business in Asia to private equity firm Actis, the bank said on Monday.

The lender is 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 separately.

Reuters reported in November the business has around $700 million in investments across Asia and Africa.

A spokesman for the bank confirmed the completion of the Actis deal. StanChart declined to comment on the prospective ICG deal.

Actis and ICG declined to comment on their respective transactions.

The 20-strong StanChart team in Asia will join Actis, the source said. Reuters reported in March 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 ($37.63 billion) in assets under management at the end of June across a number of private equity, credit and debt strategies.

(Reporting by Lawrence White, additional reporting by Simon Jessop, editing by David Evans and Adrian Croft)