ANZ, Australia's fourth-biggest bank by market value, today said it had agreed to buy a selected number of Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) businesses in Asia for around $687 million.
The acquisition includes the RBS retail, wealth and commercial businesses in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong, and the institutional businesses in Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The portfolio of businesses that ANZ is buying represents 54 branches, $4 billion in loans and $8.9 billion in deposits serving a client base of about 2 million affluent and emerging affluent clients.
The acquisition will be funded from the $4.7 billion ANZ raised from the recent institutional share placement and the share purchase plan.
The final purchase price will be based on the net tangible book value at completion.
"The acquisition of these RBS businesses is a further stepping stone in our super regional strategy and creates a new platform for our retail and wealth businesses in Asia," ANZ chief executive Mike Smith said.
"When we announced our super regional strategy in late 2007, we said that execution would be based on a targeted, disciplined process.
"This acquisition is consistent with our strategy and involves the businesses that we wanted from the RBS sale process, in markets that we know well with regulatory approval processes which we believe are achievable for ANZ."
