HONG KONG: The Standard Chartered has agreed to sell its Hong Kong based consumer business to a group that includes Pepper Australia Proprietary Limited and a Chinese group, in a deal estimated between $600 million to $700 million, two people with knowledge of the deal.
The sale of the Hong Kong consumer finance unit, called PrimeCredit, is among the initial few divestments being pursued by Standard Chartered as it tries to address share price underperformance and difficulties in markets such as South Korea.
The deal, which is expected to be announced later on Tuesday, comes after the UK listed bank had entered into advanced talks with Pepper in September.
Pepper is a specialty mortgage lender, third party loan servicer and an asset manager, with businesses in the United Kingdom and Australia.