ANZ chief executive John McFarlane has played down speculation he will expand the bank’s wealth management business through acquisitions in the near future, while announcing that the bank as a whole is on track to bring shareholders healthy returns in 2005.
“Although we have commented that we have an underweight position in wealth management, this is an issue for the long term, not for the moment. Our focus remains on organic growth and it would be imprudent to entertain wealth management acquisitions given the current values in the sector,” said McFarlane.
A spokesperson for ANZ said that McFarlane was specifically referring to speculation that the bank was considering a takeover of AMP.
McFarlane recently said that “people who think that ANZ wants to have a tilt at AMP need to go on a basic finance course.”
The spokesperson said these comments reflected the fact that the price earnings ratio for AMP is currently about 18 times, much higher than ANZ’s present PE of about 12.
Thanks to a strong performance in the bank’s retail banking and lending and credit card businesses in Australia, McFarlane says ANZ is set to meet market expectations of up to 8 per cent earning per share growth for the year ending December 2005.
McFarlane attributes strong growth on the retail side to improvements to the ANZ branch network and customer service.
The spokesperson said all ANZ Financial Planning offices were performing “extremely well” and above expectations.
