The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to sell its Luxembourg fund services provider to private equity firm, BlackFin Capital Partners, for an undisclosed sum.
RBS (Luxembourg) is the UK bank’s Luxembourg-domiciled independent management company, or ‘ManCo’, and funds governance business.
Laurent Bouyoux, president of BlackFin, says the private equity firm, which specialises in financial services, is becoming a shareholder in RBS (Luxembourg) alongside the ManCo’s management team.
“Our common objective is to capitalise on RBSL’s assets – a highly qualified team, a strong platform and a proven business model – to seize the growth opportunities arising in the asset management industry,” says Bouyoux, adding that BlackFin’s ambition is to position RBS (Luxembourg) in the long term as the “leading European independent player in its market”.
Revel Wood, chief executive officer of the RBS business, says the sale is a “good outcome for customers and staff, and provides customers with certainty that we will continue to provide a market leading service”.
RBS (Luxembourg) is a Ucits ManCo and alternative investment fund management business with about €28.5 billion of assets under administration. It saw a compound annual growth rate of more than 8% in revenue between 2012 and 2014.
RBS’s divestment of the Luxembourg business is in line with the bank’s strategy to make RBS a “smaller, more focused bank”.
The completion of the deal is subject to approval of the Luxembourg regulator, Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, and is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of this year.
©2015 funds europe
