ANZ exits Asia retail and wealth
ANZ has announced it is selling its retail and wealth business in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Indonesia to focus on running institutional banking operations in Asia.
In what represents a major reversal of previous strategy, the big banking group said it would be selling its retail and wealth businesses to Singapore's DBS Bank.
The bank said the sale price represented an estimated premium to net tangible assets of completion of around $110 million with ANZ taking a net loss of around $265 million including write-downs of software, goodwill and property, and separation costs.
Confirming the strategy change and transaction, ANZ chief executive, Shayne Elliott, said the new priority would be to create a simpler, better capitalised, better balanced bank focused on attractive positions in which the company could carve out winning positions.
"Asia remains core to ANZ strategy," he said. "This transaction simplifies our business while allowing us to continue to benefit from higher levels of growth in the region through a focus on our largest, most successful business in Asia — banking large corporate and institutional clients.
Elliott said that although the bank had grown a profitable retail and wealth business in Asia, its competitive position was not compelling without greater scale.
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