RBS Sells Some Asian Assets

HONG KONG — The Royal Bank of Scotland sold parts of its Asian assets to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group on Tuesday for $550 million, a move that helps the stricken British lender to raise much-needed cash and allows ANZ to considerably raise its exposure to Asia.

ANZ, one of Australia’s four largest banks, is buying RBS’s retail, wealth and commercial businesses in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong, and the institutional businesses in Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The purchase will give it access to 54 branches, $3.2 billion in loans and $7.1 billion in deposits serving about 2 million clients, and represents what ANZ called a “stepping stone” in the regional expansion strategy that sees it deriving 20 percent of its earnings from Asia by 2012.

The units “complement ANZ’s existing businesses across Greater China, Indochina and South East Asia and provide our franchise with further growth momentum,” said Mike Smith, ANZ’s chief executive, in a statement.

The acquisition is also the latest example of a financial institution in the Asia-Pacific region snapping up assets put up for sale by troubled U.S. and European institutions that were hit by the financial crisis that began to crystallize in 2007.

Source :- http://www.nytimes.com

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Shares in Royal Bank Of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) climbed 3.1% Tuesday after it confirmed it had raised $418 million from the sale of some of its Asian operations and said it was in advanced talks about the sale of its businesses in India and China.

The bank said overnight that it has agreed to sell retail and commercial banking operations in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia and its institutional businesses in the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan to Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ.AU).

Shares in RBS were up 1.4 pence, or 3.1%, to 48 pence at 0817 GMT, the leading gainer on the FTSE 100. RBS has been among the hardest hit by the credit crunch and global recession and its shares have lost more than two-thirds of their value in the last year.

Source : - http://online.wsj.com

Another selling assets on this year. Maybe its time for Australia and New Zealand to gain more reputation on Asia..

Do you think this post is informative??Share this:
Add to Technorati | Add to Del.icio.us|Add to DIGG | Add to StumbleUpon| Add to Facebook