Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has announced that Esanda Finance Corporation, its specialist asset finance business, will transition from a wholly owned subsidiary to a division of the group over the next three months.
Esanda is 100% owned by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ). Esanda’s earnings and balance sheet are already consolidated with ANZ for reporting purposes, said ANZ.
ANZ added that the transition will involve: the launch of the Esanda term deposit, issued by ANZ which is supported by the federal government’s guarantee on deposits; maintenance of all existing Esanda debentures (however, no new Esanda debentures will be issued from March 18, 2009); continued growth in lending to small and medium businesses, auto retailers, car and equipment buyers; and $13 billion of assets moving from the Esanda entity to the ANZ entity over the next three months.
Existing debenture holders are not affected until their debenture matures. Their existing terms and conditions continue to apply until maturity when they will be offered the opportunity to rollover their investment into an Esanda term deposit.
This transition has been approved by the ANZ and Esanda boards and has included consultation with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The transition to a division causes no change to management reporting lines or the position of Esanda staff who were already ANZ Group employees, said ANZ.
Moray McDonald, ANZ’s managing director of Esanda, said: Esanda has benefited from being part of the ANZ Group for over 50 years. Ours is a strongly performing business and our brand and business operations will not change. As overseas financiers have withdrawn from the Australian market we have welcomed many new, quality auto retailers to Esanda and have begun an exciting new partnership with Subaru.
