Swip flies again after Lloyds scraps Insight merger plan
The Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip) has been given a reprieve after is owner, Lloyds Banking Group, scrapped plans to merge it with Insight Investment, its London-based rival.
In early March, the group’s future was uncertain, as Lloyds was looking to amalgamate the companies and possibly switch all of Swip’s 400 jobs to the English capital, which would have been a major blow to Scotland’s fund management sector.
The move, the cornerstone of which was the appointment of Insight’s chief executive Abdallah Nauphal as boss of both Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and Insight, was received badly in Edinburgh. Insight Investment came under the Lloyds umbrella as a result of Lloyds’ January 2009 acquisition of Edinburgh-headquartered bank HBOS.
One Swip insider said: “Dean Buckley [chief executive of Swip] has had a spring in his step since it became apparent the integration was off.”
The change of plan follows Barclays’ $13.5 billion sale of Barclays Global Investors to Blackrock, which made Lloyds Banking Group and its advisers Deutsche Bank more confident of finding an external buyer for Insight.
This business news article was published in The Sunday Times on 4 June 2009. Read it one Times Online