State Street to sell Mourant Trustee businesses to Dominion

The Jersey competition regulator has approved a proposed sale by State Street to Dominion Corporate Holdings Limited ("DCH") of Mourant & Co. Trustees Limited ("M&Co Trustees") and Mourant & Co. Property Trustees Limited ("Property Trustees") (together the "Target Businesses").  The principal business of the Target Businesses is the provision of trustee services to Jersey Property Unit Trusts - a field in which the Target Businesses are the market leader in Jersey.

State Street acquired the Mourant International Finance Administration business in 2010.

The effect of a fairly complicated series of proposed transactions outlined in the ruling is that DCH will ultimately become the beneficial owner of the Target Businesses.  DCH and State Street will jointly offer services to real estate clients, with DCH taking the trustee roles and State Street providing underlying fund administration services.

Although the ruling does not outline the reasons for the transaction, it is known that some banks (and particularly US banks) have a decreasing appetite for the fiduciary risk associated with trustee and director roles, preferring instead to focus on their core fund administration and processing capabilities.

DCH is a Jersey head-quartered company with additional offices in Luxembourg, and is a specialist and corporate and fund administration business.