J P Morgan in race for StanChart stake

JPMorgan Chase has shown interest in buying a stake in Standard Chartered bank, the Asian Wall Street Journal has reported.

The newspaper quoted people familiar with the matter as saying JP Morgan has shown interest in potentially acquiring a 13 per cent stake in Standard Chartered, which has operations throughout Asia and in other developing countries.

Major US and European commercial banks are showing signs of renewed interest in fast-growing Asian countries after recovering from the financial crisis in 1997-1998, it said on Thursday.

HSBC Holdings Plc, Barclays Plc and Citigroup are considered possible bidders for a 13 per cent stake held by the Khoo family of Singapore in the UK-based Standard Chartered Plc, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Any deal to buy the stake, which is valued at almost $ 3 billion, is some way off and no formal talks have been held, the sources were quoted as saying.

Spokesmen for the four banks declined to comment, the Journal said.

The Khoo family's patriarch, Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat, died last February after spending two decades increasing his stake. On Friday, JP Morgan Chase President Jamie Dimon, when asked at a conference whether the bank was interested in the stake, said he did not want to comment on rumours, the newspaper said.

Dimon added that the company would be interested in Asia but did not plan a deal at present as it was integrating its Bank One Corp acquisition, according to the report.

Still, he said the bank would "look at everything that comes our way."

Davinder Singh, senior counsel at Singapore law firm Drew & Napier, who represents the trustees of the estate of Khoo, declined to comment, the Journal said.

"The trustees will not comment on any reports on or speculation about their intentions relating to the estate's stake in Standard Chartered Bank," Singh told the paper in an e-mail.

The Journal added that other investors could emerge that may be more palatable partners for Standard Chartered than the big banks, which ultimately could have designs on purchasing the whole of the London-based bank.