The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) will pay NZ$560 million to buy out the remaining quarter share of the ASB Bank in New Zealand.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) will pay NZ$560 million to buy out the remaining quarter share of the ASB Bank in New Zealand.
CBA bought 75 per cent of the ASB in 1989 leaving 25 per cent in the hands of the ASB Bank Community Trust.
The sale is subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.
David Murray, managing director of CBA, says the purchase will help with the in-tegration of the Colonial New Zealand operations into ASB.
CBA now has access to a large part of the New Zealand market through ASB, Sov-ereign (a wholly owned ASB subsidiary) and Colonial New Zealand.
ASB Bank is a full-service national bank offering a range of retail, corporate banking and investment services to over 800,000 customers as well as the leading provider in New Zealand of on-line banking.
Colonial and Sovereign give CBA a market in a wide range of insurance, superan-nuation and investment products.
“The merged operations will provide a strong platform for ASB to continue to profitably grow its New Zealand operations,” Murray says.
“The integration of ASB and Colonial New Zealand will provide significant op-portunities to continue to expand the range of products offered to our customers in New Zealand.”
He says no change in management or style is planned.
As part of the buy out the ASB Charitable Trust’s subordinated loan of NZ$60 will be repaid to the ASB Group.
Murray says the CBA will continue its association with the Trust and thanked its representative directors, Judith Bassett and Waari Ward-Holmes.
“Their support of ASB and valuable counsel on important issues had grown the value of ASB and added materially to the philanthropic cope of the Trust,” Murray says.
ends
