Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) has reached an agreement with the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), to acquire its selected businesses in Asia for around A$687 million. Acquisition includes the RBS retail, wealth and commercial businesses in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong, and the institutional businesses in Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
As part of the acquisition, ANZ has put in place a transitional services agreement and a product supply agreement with RBS. Retention agreements have been put in place with key RBS employees.
Mike Smith, CEO of ANZ, said: The acquisition of these RBS businesses is a further stepping stone in our super regional strategy and creates a new platform for our retail and wealth businesses in Asia. Together, the businesses are an attractive portfolio of well provisioned banking assets at a reasonable price. They complement ANZ’s existing businesses across Greater China, Indochina and South East Asia and provide our franchise with further growth momentum.
ANZ’s portfolio of businesses represents 54 branches, A$4 billion in loans and A$8.9 billion in deposits serving a client base of approximately 2 million affluent and emerging affluent clients. The acquisition is funded from proceeds of the recent institutional share placement and the Share Purchase Plan. Purchase price equates to around 1.1 times the fully provided recapitalised net tangible book value. Final purchase price will be based on the net tangible book value at completion.
It has been reported earlier that after posting one of the heavy losses in the UK corporate history, the government controlled RBS is seeking to cut down its operations in 36 nations. On the other hand, ANZ, is seeking to increase its business activities in Asia, to raise the proportion of income derived, to 20%.
