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My weekly notes on banking and financial services –
by Aivars Jurcans
Done! And Done
Gazprombank, a Russian lender, has confirmed the transfer of its stake in Evrofinance Mosnarbank, a Russian-Venezuelan lender under the US sanctions, to Russia’s state property management agency.
Source: Reuters
Commonwealth Bank of Australia has accepted USD 101 million less (compared to the original terms of the deal agreed upon in September 2017) for the sale of its life-insurance business to AIA Group from Hong Kong.
Source: Reuters
Allianz, a German insurer, will acquire the auto and property insurance portfolio from Sul America, a Brazilian insurer, in a transaction valued at USD 734 million.
Source: Reuters
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group will acquire TT International, a British asset manager with USD 8.4 billion in assets under management. Transaction details were not disclosed but it is believed that SMFG will spend about USD 188 million on this deal.
Source: Reuters
Deals On the Table
JPMorgan Chase is said to be looking to sell about USD 1 billion credit-card receivables which are part of the portfolio built through a partnership with the non-profit AARP.
Source: Reuters
UniCredit is said to be in talks with Koc Holding, its Turkish partner, about reorganising their JV, Koc Financial Services, which is the owner of almost 82% in Yapi Kredi, a Turkish lender. UniCredit is said to be interested in taking direct control of its 41% stake.
Source: Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank is said to be preparing to transfer up to 800 staff and the control of its prime brokerage unit that services hedge funds over to BNP Paribas. Deutsche is expected to receive “a nominal cash sum” but the main attraction of the deal would be to avoid paying redundancy to staff who switch over.
Source: FT
Thanks, But No Deal
Deutsche Bank is said to have been exploring ways to combine its business with UBS earlier this year, including a possible unusual form of alliance of investment banking operations. Both parties have not been able to agree on issues how to structure and allocate capital to any joint operation.
Source: WSJ
Where the Money Goes
Macquarie Group, an Australian bank, is said to be raising USD 675.5 million in fresh equity to support increased investment in the renewables, technology and infrastructure sectors and “to give it additional flexibility to pursue new opportunities”.
Source: FT
Uncharted Territory
The European Central Bank’s deposit rate of minus 0.4% already costs German banks EUR 2.4 billion a year.
Source: FT
Up-and-Comers
Revolut, a UK-based neobank, was valued at USD 1.7 billion in its most recent fundraising last year, but is aiming to raise up to USD 500 million at a higher valuation before the end of 2019.
Source: FT
On the Baltic Shores
EQT, a Swedish private equity firm with EUR 40 billion under management, is expected to launch an initial public offering in September that would value the firm at around EUR 4 billion.
Source: Reuters
Exciting Numbers
Not yet supported by the Norwegian government, but the proposed mandate to Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to hold up to 1% of its equity portfolio in unlisted companies, currently is equivalent to about USD 7 billion.
Source: FT
According to the European Central Bank, the amount of non-performing loans held by systemically important eurozone lenders has dropped from about EUR 1 trillion in 2014 to EUR 587 billion at the end of March 2019.
Source: FT
According to the European Central Bank, Greek banks have the highest proportion of bad loans at 41.4% of their total assets, followed by 21.3% for banks in Cyprus, 11.5% for Portuguese lenders and 8.4% for Italian banks.
Source: FT
A Thought Worth Noting
“Fundamentally, over the next 10 years the banking system is going to shrink in Europe.”
Symon Drake-Brockman, managing partner, Pemberton
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Aivars Jurcans has more than 20 years of corporate finance and investment banking experience. His services are currently available through MURINUS ADVISERS.
Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Unsplash
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