Standard Chartered has signed definitive agreements to buy Zodia Custody, turning the non-binding offer it disclosed in May into a binding deal for the crypto custodian its venture arm backed.
Under the agreements, which the bank announced on Wednesday, its entity Standard Chartered I H Limited will take 100% of Zodia Custody Limited. That company is the parent of Zodia’s regulated custody businesses in five jurisdictions: Luxembourg, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the UAE. The deal still needs regulatory approvals and has to meet customary closing conditions. The release gave no purchase price and no expected closing date, and it did not name the regulators involved.
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From Offer to Signed Deal
Standard Chartered first said on May 18 that Zodia’s shareholders and noteholders had accepted its non-binding proposal. Once the deal completes, Zodia’s regulated custody arm will be folded into the bank’s existing digital asset custody operations inside its Securities Services unit, and the rest of Zodia will be split off.
That remainder, Zodia’s digital asset software and professional services work, will move to Zodia Solutions, a new standalone company being set up under SC Ventures. In May, the bank said only that a group of bank investors would back the new firm. Wednesday’s release named seven of them: NAB Ventures, Northern Trust, SBI Ventures Asset, Further Ventures’ Q Studio, Emirates NBD, Investcorp’s Zodia Investments and Zodia Holdings, which SC Ventures owns.
The bank said it expects no disruption for clients and that existing Zodia custody customers will keep being served as usual.
New Executives Quoted
The executives speaking for the deal changed between the two announcements. In May, comments came from Margaret Harwood-Jones, Standard Chartered’s then-Global Head of Financing and Securities Services, and Julian Sawyer, Zodia Custody’s then-CEO. Wednesday’s release quoted Ying Ying Tan, who succeeded Harwood-Jones as the bank’s Global Head of Securities Services, Standard Chartered announced on Oct. 14. Harwood-Jones moved to CEO, UK & Europe, and Tan was also named Global Head of Digital Assets. Wednesday’s release also quoted Richard Clark as Zodia Custody’s CEO.
Tan said in the bank’s release that the purchase “further deepens our digital asset custody portfolio” and that Standard Chartered would keep investing in its platform.
Clark tied the sale to banks taking on more of the custody market, saying that “custody is increasingly becoming part of the global banking landscape” as institutions adopt digital assets.
Craig Perrin, named as chief executive of Zodia Solutions, said: “Financial institutions are moving beyond digital asset pilots towards operating services at scale.”
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