Barclays Snaps Up French Wealth Business

Contributing Editor

3 June 2005

Barclays has confirmed that it has bought the wealth business of ING Securities Bank in France, consisting of ING Ferri and ING Private Banking. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The news follows the announcement in January that ING was in exclusive talks with Barclays on a possible sale. The transfer of the business is expected to take place in the beginning of July. ING Ferri has 27,000 clients and €2.2 billion ($2.69 billion), according to a statement from the bank published in September. ING Private Banking, which targets investors with assets of at least €1 million, has about 700 clients and €550 million under management, according to the same statement. “France is one of the most attractive wealth markets in Europe with 4 million affluent individuals,” said David Roberts, Barclays' head of international retail and commercial banking, in a Regulatory News Service statement in January. The purchase would boost Barclays' French client base by 25 per cent to 140,000. Barclays was advised on the deal by MilleniumAssociates, M&A advisors to the global financial, wealth and asset management industry. “This represents a strategic addition to Barclay's already successful private client business in France,” Ray Soudah, founder of Millenium Associates, told WealthBriefing.