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* SocGen had short-listed five suitors
* SocGen's Asia private bank unit manages $13 bln
* The sale attracted interest from UBS, others early on
* DBS seen as front runner to buy the business
By Saeed Azhar and Denny Thomas
SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Singapore's DBSGroup Holdings, ABN AMRO and Credit Suisse have submitted final round bids for Societe Generale's Asian private bank, which is being valued at around $400million, people familiar with the matter said.
A successful deal would make it the third major transactionin Asia's competitive private banking landscape since the globalfinancial crisis, as smaller players struggle to generate enoughrevenue to support expensive bankers and rising regulatorycosts.
SocGen had short-listed five suitors, but it was notimmediately clear if all those on the short list had placedfinal bids, which were due on Monday.
Initial price expectations for the business ranged frombetween $300 million to $600 million, but a person with directknowledge of the matter told Reuters the business is beingvalued at around $400 million.
Sources declined to be identified as they are not authorisedto talk to the media.
A SocGen spokeswoman in Singapore declined to comment. DBS,Credit Suisse and ABN AMRO also declined to comment.
SocGen's Asian private bank unit manages about $13 billion,below the $20 billion mark that the industry has come to see asnecessary for critical mass in the region.
DBS is seen by many as a leading contender for the unit andCEO Piysuh Gupta told an earnings briefing this month the bankwould look at Asian wealth businesses.
UBS, Royal Bank of Canada were amongbidders looking at the unit in the early stages of the sale,sources have said. Standard Chartered Plc was also anearly bidder but has since dropped out, sources said.
SocGen's private bank sale follows two major transactionssince the financial crisis including the sale of ING's private bank in late 2009 to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp and Bank of America's sale of Asian andEuropean private banking units to Julius Baer.
The industry has also seen smaller deals such as the sale ofHSBC's private bank in Japan to Credit Suisse andJulius Baer taking over Macquarie Group's privatebanking unit in Asia.
JPMorgan is advising SocGen on the sale.
