BAY delays signing deal for HSBC's Thai retail unit

BANGKOK: Bank of Ayudhya, Thailand's fifth-largest lender, will delay to the end of January from this week plans to sign a deal to buy HSBC's Thai credit card and retail business, a senior official at the bank said.

The delay was mainly because the Thai bank, part-owned by General Electric, needed more time to prepare some documents, said the official, who declined to be named but is close to the deal.

The source did not give a value for the deal, but HSBC's retail business has a loan portfolio of about 30-40 billion baht ($942 million to $1.26 billion) and about 500,000 credit card customers.