AMP has won a small strategic victory in its bid for AXA Asia Pacific (AXA AP) with the New Zealand Commerce Commission granting it a clearance.
AMP announced to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today that it welcomed gaining clearance from the New Zealand regulator and restated its claim that a merger between AMP and AXA AP’s Australian and New Zealand businesses would “create a fifth pillar in the critically important financial services sector”.
The AMP announcement said the merger would create a stronger wealth manager to better serve the Australian and New Zealand communities.
The New Zealand Commerce Commission’s announcement said that it was satisfied the proposed acquisition would not have, or would be not be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in any of the affected markets in New Zealand.
In the meantime, National Australia Bank (NAB) is continuing its negotiations with AXA AP and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in a bid to overcome the Australian regulator’s concerns at the manner in which NAB’s bid would be likely to skew the platforms market.
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