HSBC Acquires Silicon Valley Bank UK for £1

Credit: HSBC/SVB

The Bank of England has put together a deal for HSBC to acquire Silicon Valley Bank UK. The deal was announced this morning by UK Member of Parliament Jeremy Hunt (South West Surrey):

“This morning, the Government and the Bank of England facilitated a private sale of Silicon Valley Bank UK to HSBC. Deposits will be protected, with no taxpayer support. I said yesterday that we would look after our tech sector, and we have worked urgently to deliver that promise.”

SVB UK was acquired by HSBC UK Bank for £1 ($1.21 USD), according to a CNBC report, and excludes the assets and liabilities related to its parent company in the United States. The deal was facilitated by UK regulator the Bank of England in cooperation with UK Treasury.

SVB UK had loans outstanding of approximately £5.5B ($6.64B), and deposits of around £6.7B ($8.08B). The UK arm of SVB reported FY profit of £88M ($10.6M) before taxes in 2022.

UK regulators appear to have moved more swiftly than any other jurisdiction by already securing an acquisition partner to make sure that companies in the UK that require capital today already have access to it. It will be interesting to see what counterparts in the U.S. and Canada do to make sure the situation is resolved in a way that doesn’t cause the thousands of startups that have done business with SVB to miss crucial payments to vendors, payroll, and other expenses that come due this week.

For more coverage on the SVB situation, follow this link.