D. A. H. Private Bank, a joint venture between Dah Sing Financial Holdings, Hambros Bank and Abbey National, is due to open for business in the middle of the year.
It will target individuals with more than US$250,000 to invest, well below the minimum for most established private banks but an extremely profitable high end sector of the retail market.
The new private bank operation will be run through the Wing On Bank, which has a branch in Central and will be renamed.
Dah Sing will have 80.2 per cent of the voting rights in the new bank with long established merchant bank Hambros and Abbey National, the fifth biggest bank in Britain, having 9.9 per cent each.
The two foreign banking groups will invest about $85 million each in the new venture, depending on the net asset value when the deal is completed.
A key feature of the new private bank is the planned Channel Islands subsidiary, D. A. H. Hambro, which will be managed by Hambros and will offer offshore services to the private bank's clients.
Dah Sing chairman David Wong said the joint venture 'will enable Dah Sing to broaden further its provision of financial services to clients. More importantly, it will enable us to establish dedicated vehicles, in Hong Kong and the Channel Islands, to service the increasingly affluent potential customer base in the Asia region'.
