StanChart Markets $1.5 Billion of Private Equity Deals

Standard Chartered Plc’s three-year saga to exit its loss-making private equity business, which has investments ranging from Jordanian poultry to a Korean restaurant specializing in garlic, has finally reached the endgame. The bank is seeking investors to purchase the remaining $1.5 billion of private equity assets and back a spinoff of the 55-strong team running the buyout business, according to people with knowledge of the deal, who asked not to be identified as the details are private. Code-named ‘Project Augusta,’ Standard Chartered is proposing existing managers led by Singapore-based Nainesh Jaisingh, be set up as an independent entity that would run the bank’s own private equity portfolio as well as an additional $2.1 billion of third-party money, said the people.