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KBC Sells German Wealth Management Arm
Sandra Kilhof
24 September 2013
The Brussels-headquartered bank group has agreed to sell
its corporate and wealth management subsidiary KBC Bank Deutschland AG, to
several investors including affiliates of Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Apollo
Global Management, Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, and Grovepoint
Capital. KBC Bank Deutschland specialises in corporate banking and
financial services for medium-sized German companies, while also providing real
estate financing, acquisition finance, institutional asset management and
private wealth management services for high net worth individuals. While the deal is subject to antitrust and regulatory
approval, KBC Bank Deutschland will continue all its current business
activities, it said in a statement. The sale will free up around €100 million ($134.8 million) of
capital for KBC, primarily by reducing risk-weighted assets and will improve the
firm’s solvency position with roughly 15 basis points. In November 2009, KBC agreed to a strategic plan with the
European Commission that involves refocusing on retail customers, small and
medium-sized enterprises and mid-caps, while reducing risk-weighted assets. As
part of this plan, KBC Bank Deutschland was earmarked for divestment. ‘With this deal, the divestment programme KBC has committed
to execute is nearly complete. This agreement
also affirms KBC Bank Deutschland’s expertise, and will provide
continuity to the bank’s staff and customers. At the same time, the agreement
allows KBC to continue supporting its home-market corporate customers requiring
financial services for their German business activities,” said Johan Thijs,
chief executive officer of KBC Group. KBC Bank Deutschland is a stand-alone specialised financial
institution with a registered total assets of €2.6 billion (around $3.5 billion) at
the end of 2012.