StanChart unit offers to buy stake in Tat Hong for 50 cts/share

SINGAPORE (Nov 10): Standard Chartered’s loss-making private equity unit is planning an investment in a Singaporean crane firm, signalling it’s still open to deals even as the business shrinks.

Standard Chartered Private Equity, or SCPE, has proposed to buy shares of publicly listed Tat Hong Holdings, the Singapore-based company said Friday in a filing to the local stock exchange. The London-based bank’s buyout unit has offered to pay 50 cents a share, subject to conditions, Tat Hong said in the statement, without specifying the number of shares involved. That’s 28% higher than the year-to-date average price of the firm, which has a market value of $347 million.

The potential investment shows Standard Chartered is still trying to make money from the high-risk, high-return business of private equity, even after Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters moved to wind down the SCPE unit last year. The division has lost more than US$1 billion ($1.36 billion) since 2015 as deals went awry across emerging markets, hampering the CEO’s efforts to overhaul the bank.

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