ANZ plans to boost its Asian growth strategy

Lender mulls on spending US$4bln on 2 mega deals as it denied selling Bank Panin stakes.

ANZ Bank is entering a critical phase of its super-regional strategy, saying it could spend more than $5 billion on strategic stakes in both the Asian lenders it is examining.

ANZ Asia-Pacific, Europe and America chief executive Alex Thursby said there was no chance of the bank selling its 39.5 per cent holding in Indonesia's PT Bank Panin, contrary to speculation last week.

"There've been rumours suggesting that we could be a seller, but I can't conceive of a scenario where that's likely," he said.

After spending $550 million in August on Royal Bank of Scotland's businesses in Asia, ANZ is now considering two multi-billion-dollar deals.

Last week, it emerged as the clear frontrunner to buy a A$1.4bn (US$1.15), 46 per cent stake in Panin Bank from the Gunawan family.

ANZ, which is the mostly strongly capitalised major lender with an estimated A$4 billion (US$3.31 billion)-plus of surplus capital, is also in the mix to spend more than $4 billion on a majority stake in Korea Exchange Bank (KEB).

View the full story in the Australian.