Dutch private bank Van Lanschot and insurer Achmea have agreed the sale of the private banking activities of Achmea's subsidiary Staalbankiers. The agreement on the acquisition by Van Lanschot was announced on Wednesday August 9.
In addition to Staalbankiers' private banking client relationships, Van Lanschot will acquire around €1.7bn in assets under management (AUM), around €280m in savings and a limited number of securities based loans. Twenty-five private bankers and investment experts of Staalbankiers will transfer to Van Lanschot. The deal does not involve the other activities of Staalbankiers, which include a portfolio of approximately €250m in mortgages and 35 employees.
Although Staalbankiers has distributed structured products in the past, the bank has not been involved in the market in recent years, and Laurent Guntenaar (pictured), director structured investments at Kempen, which designs and structures products sold within the Van Lanschot network, expects to see very few structured products, if any, in the portfolios of existing clients of Staalbankiers "since the bank has not been active in this space for years".
"However, depending on the type of customer (discretionary vs. advisory), there are of course opportunities for us since the possible new advisory clients can start using the product assortment of Van Lanschot and Kempen, which includes our structured products," said Guntenaar.
SRP's Dutch database lists four structured notes distributed by Staalbankiers between December 2006 and July 2008. They include the China Leverage Note, a two-year, 85% protected product linked to the FTSE Xinhua China 25, which was issued in collaboration with ING and the six-year Dé Autocallable Note which was issued via Societe Generale.
Van Lanschot will pay an initial acquisition price of €16m for the activities to be acquired. The final price may be higher or lower depending on the AUM amount that will actually transfer to Van Lanschot. The transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including declarations of no-objection issued by the Dutch National Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank - DNB) and the completion of the employee consultation procedures involving the Van Lanschot and Achmea works councils.
'The sale ties in with our strategy to focus on our insurance activities,' said Willem van Duin, chairman of the Achmea executive board in a statement. 'Staalbankiers' private banking activities are a logical and natural fit with Van Lanschot, where private banking is a core activity.'
Van Lanschot, Achmea and Staalbankiers expect to complete the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Staalbankiers has been active as a private bank since 1916. In 1994 the bank became part of Achmea.
Kempen goes public with bonus notes
Dutch private bank reports uptake of structured notes
Van Lanschot sells more notes at higher volumes and makes more money
Benelux: Arlis declared bankrupt; Staalbankiers ordered to pay damages