Barclays and SLI moving €200bn to Dublin units

BARCLAYS has continued to finalise the transfer of its mainland European business to Dublin, valuing its French business at €75m and its Italian branch at just €1m.

Separately, a court in Edinburgh has approved the transfer of almost €19bn in assets to Standard Life’s Irish arm. Around 600,000 Irish, German and Austrian customer policies will legally transfer from Standard Life to Dublin based Standard Life International which has a right to operate in the EU after Brexit.

Barclays is transferring about €190bn of assets to its Irish unit in advance of Brexit, including business conducted by it in countries such as Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and Sweden. It will make it the biggest bank in Ireland by assets.

It has valued the German business transferred to Dublin at €200m. That German business being moved to Ireland includes credit cards and a corporate investment bank unit.

Accounting firm EY has assessed the fair market value of each unit that’s being transferred to Ireland.

“The basis of the value for the consideration is ‘market value’ – the price that would be paid in a transaction between a willing vendor to a willing purchaser, each of whom is acting for self-interest and gain, and both of whom are equally well-informed about the companies and the market in which they operate,” noted EY in relation to the valuation placed on the French business.

The Italian business that was valued at €1m includes Barclays’ investment banking and corporate international divisions of its branch there, as well as the legacy mortgage business of the Italian arm.

Business from its Portuguese branch being moved to Ireland was valued at €10.5m, with its Dutch branch business valued at €2.2m.

In January, a UK High Court judge criticised Barclays as it finalised the legal groundwork necessary to transfer assets to Ireland.

The judge said that there had been an aggressive timetable for the move, and an expectation that he would “simply wave the scheme through”.

“This was a significant, complex, and in certain legal respects, a novel scheme,” Justice Richard Snowden said.

He added: “It could not at any point in the design process have been thought that the court would simply wave the scheme through without having time for consideration.”

The transfer scheme initiated by Barclays involves about 5,000 clients.

The transfer of assets by Barclays to Ireland is one of the most significant corporate moves made by a UK entity in advance of Brexit.

The bank is doubling the number of staff here to 300 by the end of the year in its new offices on Dublin’s Molesworth Street.