M and A
Summary Of M&A Deals In Asia-Pacific Wealth Management – June 2023
The latest in M&A activity as it affected the Asia-Pacific sector in June. Probably the most significant was UBS and Credit Suisse enacting the formal end of the takeover, originally announced in March.
UBS completed the acquisition of Credit Suisse. The combined entity operates as a consolidated banking group. The move left Switzerland with one universal bank.
As announced on 19 March 2023, Credit Suisse shareholders received one UBS share for every 22.48 Credit Suisse shares held. UBS paid SFr3 billion ($3.32 billion) for its rival. As part of the deal, conducted at the urging of the Swiss authorities, holders of Credit Suisse’s Additional Tier 1 bonds – forms of buffer capital created for European banks after the 2008 crash – have had their bonds written down.
Ocorian, a specialist global provider of services to financial institutions, asset managers, corporate and high net worth individuals, acquired A-Pass in Hong Kong.
The transaction, the financial size of which wasn’t disclosed by Ocorian, remained subject to regulatory approval as of the time of writing. In an all-share transaction, Ocorian agreed to buy the business from Capricorn Capital Partners HK Limited, the Hong Kong arm of the family-owned global direct private investment business, Capricorn Capital Group.
IQ-EQ, an Astorg portfolio company, agreed to acquire ComplianceAsia and Lymon PTE. The acquisitions complement IQ-EQ’s regulatory compliance operations in the UK and the US.
ComplianceAsia is a compliance consulting firm in Asia Pacific, founded in 2003 by Philippa Allen. Lymon was founded in Singapore in 2013 by managing director Yishan Lee to address a gap in the market in the provision of regulatory compliance services for financial institutions in Singapore, the firm continued. The newly-combined team of 101 full-time employees will operate across the Asia-Pacific region servicing their combined international client base of asset managers, hedge fund managers, private equity and venture fund managers, real estate firms, family offices, broker-dealers, insurers, wealth managers and investment banks.
