Barclays nets less than expected from Asia wealth business sale

LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays completed the sale of its Singapore and Hong Kong wealth management businesses for a less-than-expected $225 million (181.06 million pound), as not all of the bank's customers chose to transfer their business across to the buyer, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp . OCBC, which bought the businesses through its Singapore private banking unit Bank of Singapore, said in April it had agreed to pay $320 million for the operations. The $95 million discrepancy with the final price reflects the fact that not all customers chose to have their assets moved over to the Singaporean bank, and the price agreed was set at 1.75 percent of customer assets at the time the deal completed. Barclays on Monday said that the 'majority' of its customers had chosen to transfer to the Singaporean lender. Singapore's banks have been keen to pick up wealth management assets put up for auction by Western banks, many of which are in retreat as they focus on their own markets. (Reporting By Lawrence White; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)