OCBC to buy bulk of Barclays' Asian wealth management unit for $320 million

By Saeed Azhar

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp has agreed to buy Barclays' wealth management operations in Singapore and Hong Kong for $320 million, its second major private banking deal since 2009.

Singapore's second-biggest lender outbid DBS Group Holdings which had been seen by some as the early favourite, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Singapore's banks have been keen to pick up wealth management assets put up for auction by Western banks as they retreat to focus on their own markets.

With the purchase, OCBC's Bank of Singapore unit will see its assets under management rise by about a third to $73.3 billion and its number of private bankers will climb by 88 to 400, OCBC said in a statement.

"Strategically, this acquisition further broadens our geographical footprint and client coverage while adding scale, deepening our presence in our core Asian markets, including Southeast Asia, Greater China and the Middle East," said Bahren Shaari, CEO Bank of Singapore.

The sale is part of a restructuring by Barclays' new chief executive, Jes Staley, and comes as several European banks rethink their Asian strategy due to pressure at home to cut costs.

This is OCBC's second major acquisition since it pounced on the Asian wealth unit of Dutch lender ING in 2009. OCBC's rival DBS bought the Asian private bank of Societe Generale in 2014.

OCBC's purchase price was set at 1.75 percent of Barclays' $18.3 billion in assets in Singapore and Hong Kong, similar to what DBS paid for SocGen's private banking arm.

Credit Suisse advised OCBC on the deal, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)