– Sono stati posti in vendita asset per circa $96MD, soprattutto da parte di banche europee, per ridurre i loro bilanci;
o consapevoli che i venditori sono sotto pressione, gli acquirenti potenziali premono per prezzi minori.
– Tra gli accordi in trattazione:
o Dutch ING Groep (Olanda) mette in vendita la sua branca assicurativa asiatica, a cui sono interessati AIA Group, di Hongkong e Korea Life Insurance;
o l’americano Piper Jaffray Co. mette in vendita la filiale di Hongkong, interessati broker cinesi;
o anche banche francesi stanno vendendo a prezzi scontati portafogli di prestiti del valore complessivo di MD di €.
– Queste offerte sono un’opportunità a gruppi locali che desiderano svilupparsi:
o in Malesia (CIMB Group Holding, che aspira alla creazione di una banca pan-regionale), Tailandia (Bank of Ayudhya PCL), Giappone (il gigante Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc.), SMFG che ha pagato $7,2MD per il settore aviazione in leasing Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
o Il suo presidente ha rivelato che, dall’aprile 2011 a gennaio 2012, al gruppo sono stati offerti asset e affari per $96MD da società finanziarie europee.
o Nel 2011 il settore finanziario asiatico ha raggiunto il record di 996 transazioni, con un calo del 15% del valore complessivo rispetto al 2010.
o Sta accadendo il contrario del 1997 (crisi finanziaria asiatica), banche ed assicurazioni asiatiche stanno cercando di utilizzare i loro alti profitti per acquistare asset di gruppi occidentali in Asia, venduti a prezzi vantaggiosi.
– L’Asia rimane tuttavia centrale nelle strategie delle banche europee; negli ultimi 3 anni, in Asia i rendimenti bancari sono cresciuti ad un tasso medio annuale del 9% mentre nei mercati occidentali sono rimasti piatti o in calo.
o Il britannico HSBC (primo istituto bancario europeo per capitalizzazione) ha concluso diversi accordi compresa la vendita della filiale al dettaglio in Tailandia e il management a Bank of Ayudhya;
o sta rafforzandosi MSIC, secondo assicuratore vita giapponese per premium, ha acquistato una quota del 50% del settore assicurazioni dell’indonesiano Sinar Mas, per $815 mn.
come pure il gruppo bancario malese CIMB, cresciuto con una serie di piccole acquisizioni. Il governo della Malesia, sotto la spinta del figlio dell’ex primo ministro e fratello dall’attuale, ha varato piani per trasformare il paese in uno snodo regionale per i servizi finanziari.
By ALISON TUDOR
HONG KONG—As global banks slim down to satisfy regulators, a new wave of Asian buyers keen to be players on the regional stage is stepping up.
– Roughly $96 billion in assets ranging from entire businesses to portfolios of loans, have been put up for sale, a banker who has been pitched the deals in Asia said. The sellers are mainly European banks that are under orders to shrink their balance sheets but feeling pressure to hold onto assets in their home markets, even as they see potential for faster growth elsewhere.
– Potential buyers are pressing for low prices, knowing the sellers are under pressure and aware that the value of some financial operations has proved to be fleeting.
– Among the deals in the works: Dutch ING Groep NV’s INGA. auction of its Asia insurance arm, which has attracted interest from Hong Kong-headquartered insurer AIA Group Ltd. and Korea Life Insurance, among others;
– HSBC Holdings HBC PLC’s talks to sell its South Korean retail operation to Korea’s KDB Financial Group; and U.S. brokerage Piper Jaffray Co.’s possible sale of its Hong Kong unit, which has roused interest from Chinese brokers, people familiar with the deals have said.
– French banks are also disgorging at a discount portfolios of loans together work billion of euros.
– This smorgasbord of financial assets has opened a window for aspiring local players ranging from Malaysia’s CIMB Group Holdings. to Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya PCL to Japanese giant Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. "The future was always going to be about the rise of many regional players; there is such a thing as being too big to manage," said CIMB Chief Executive Nazir Razak, who aspires to build a pan-regional bank.
– Australian bankers are the happiest with their pay compared with their counterparts in Hong Kong, Singapore and China, according to a survey by eFinancialCareers. But as WSJ’s Sydney Bureau Chief Andy Critchlow tells Deborah Kan, the elated sentiment may not last for long.
– SMFG recently paid $7.2 billion for Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC’s aviation-leasing business; people familiar with the situation said the talks dragged out as the Japanese megabank meticulously went through the business and negotiated hard. The Japanese bank’s president, Koichi Miyata, said in January that his bank had been offered assets and businesses worth $96 billion from European financial firms since last April.
– Distressed sellers mean prices are falling, bankers say. There were a record 996 transactions in the financial sector in 2011 across Asia, according to Dealogic, but in a rough guide to pricing, the total dollar value fell 15% from 2010.
– Western banks are caught between the desire for growth in Asia and pressure at home. Banking revenues have grown at an annual average rate of 9% over the past three years in Asia, at a time when revenues have been flat or shrinking in Western markets, according to consultants Oliver Wyman.
– "Asia remains core to many European banks’ strategies, but it is starting to become socially acceptable to consider select divestments to improve their overall financial position," said Willard McLane, head of Morgan Stanley’s financial institutions group in the Asia-Pacific.
– Many executives at foreign firms in the region spent a large part of their careers building up their businesses since the Asian financial crisis hit 15 years ago, only to now see parts sold at bargain levels.
– "The reverse of 1997 is happening; Asian banks and insurers are looking to use their high trading multiples to buy assets that are owned by western institutions in Asia," said Charles-Everard de T’Serclaes, head of J.P. Morgan Chase’s financial institutions group for South East Asia. "Some Southeast Asian financial institutions are rounding out regional platforms; Japanese insurers are gaining momentum overseas and the Chinese haven’t really started yet."
– HSBC, which is selling or closing businesses in some markets, has reached several deals, including the sale of its Thai retail and wealth management business to Bank of Ayudhya. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Japan’s second-largest life insurer by premiums, bought a 50% stake in the life-insurance unit of Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas Group for US$815 million.
– Another bank that is expanding is Malaysia’s CIMB, which is in exclusive talks to buy RBS’s Asia equities franchise. Led by the 45-year-old Mr. Razak, CIMB has grown via a series of small acquisitions from an investment boutique to a full-service Southeast Asian bank. The son of former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdul Razak and younger brother of current premier Najib Razak, Mr. Razak has helped the government deliver on plans to make Malaysia a regional financial-services hub.
CIMB aims to acquire the RBS business cheaply and then cut costs, including giving many of the RBS bankers who stay on significant pay cuts, people familiar with the matter said.
"The easy part is the price: the difficult part is to make sure you integrate and realizing value to justify the price," Mr. Razak said in an interview.