ANZ remains disciplined on acquisitions
The ANZ Banking Group has reaffirmed a continuing “disciplined” approach to mergers and acquisitions activity in a market update provided to UK investors this week.
The update, released to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) yesterday, described the banking group’s acquisition in 2009 of the remaining 51 per cent holding in ING Australia and ING New Zealand as part of that “disciplined” approach.
Following its acquisition of full ownership of ING in Australia, ANZ rebranded the organisation as OnePath and a recently-published interview with OnePath chief executive John van Der Wielen suggested it would be seeking further growth organically rather than by further acquisition.
The ANZ briefing said that the acquisition of the remaining part of the ING operations had delivered immediate scale in terms of funds under management (FUM), in-force premiums and distribution.
The analysis said FUM stood at $39 billion, with the largest portion (40 per cent) being held in the OneAnswer master trust.
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Mike Taylor
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