Citigroup Talks To Suitors Over Taiwan Retail Arm

Editorial Staff

20 January 2022

, which is offloading some of its retail business and pivoting to areas such as wealth management, is in talks to sell its mainland China consumer business, reports said.

Bloomberg said that the US bank is in advanced talks with Taiwan’s Fubon Financial Holding, and the Wall Street Journal said, quoting unnamed sources, that a deal with Singapore’s DBS could be announced before the end of January.

Citigroup’s Taiwan retail business includes 45 branches, mortgage lending and a large credit-card business.

This news service has asked Citigroup for comment and may update in due course.

Bloomberg’s sources said that Fubon has emerged as the likeliest buyer after outbidding rivals, and the two lenders are negotiating the terms of a potential transaction. Both parties are aiming to sign an agreement in the coming weeks and the assets could be valued at about $1.5 billion, the newswire said.

The WSJ story said: “Final details for the Taiwanese sale are under deliberation, and the transaction is likely to be valued at 50 billion to 60 billion New Taiwan dollars, or the equivalent of $1.8 billion to $2.2 billion.”

The banking group last week agreed to sell consumer banking businesses in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to United Overseas Bank for about S$4.9 billion ($3.6 billion). The disposal followed the sale of its assets in the Philippines to Union Bank of the Philippines for a cash consideration plus a premium of about $904 million in December. Citigroup has also wound down its consumer and SME banking operations in Mexico.

Under Jane Fraser, Citigroup CEO, the bank’s US consumer and global wealth arms are being melded into a single business. Like other international banks, it is also pushing into areas such as wealth management and private banking in Asia to tap a rising and affluent middle class.