Indosuez Wealth Management, the Paris-based private banking arm of Crédit Agricole, has announced that it’s completed the acquisition of Crédit Industriel et Commercial’s (CIC) private banking operations in Singapore, and the full capital purchase of CIC Investors Service in Hong Kong.
The transaction, unveiled last year, reinforces Indosuez WM’s footprint in Asia, bringing its total assets under management across the region to around €12bn, overseen by more than 400 employees.
Under the deal, CIC clients will be given access to Indosuez’s Hong Kong and global multi-booking centres, as well as its discretionary portfolio management, advisory mandates, private equity, wealth structuring and corporate capabilities, according to the company. Indosuez is also set to add a 24-hour execution platform to its offering.
Indosuez WM chief executive Paul de Leusse said the completion of the acquisition was a measure of the “significant progress” the company is making on what it calls “Shaping Indosuez 2020”, a corporate strategy that is described as being a part of the Crédit Agricole Group’s Medium-Term Plan.
He said the “Indosuez family” was pleased to welcome its “new colleagues” as “we continue to expand in the high-growth Asian market”.
As reported, Crédit Agricole rebranded its private banking arm as Indosuez Wealth Management last year, as it sought to revive a historic name in what was described at the time as a major transformation aimed at tapping into new markets in Asia and across the globe. The full, formal new name is CA Indosuez Wealth (Group).
Paris-based Crédit Agricole originally dropped the Indosuez name from use after the 2004 merger between parent Crédit Agricole, Credit Lyonais and Indosuez. Eleven years later, though, the regional connotations of “Indosuez” were seen more likely to appeal to the new generations of wealthy individuals in countries around the world, according to Crédit Agricole.
The Indosuez name came from one of Crédit Agricole’s historic component entities, Banque de l’Indochine, originally founded in 1875 in Paris to operate in French Indochina, the rest of Asia, and the Pacific.
Today, Indosuez Wealth Management employs 2,800 employees operating out of offices in 14 countries, looking after the financial needs of high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals worldwide.
