MELBOURNE (AFP)--ANZ Bank is looking at buying assets in Asia as
it pursues its strategy of becoming a regional "super-bank,"
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ.AU) Chief Chief
Executive Mike Smith said Sunday.
Smith refused to confirm reports that ANZ was in the running to
buy Royal Bank of Scotland's Asian assets but said he hoped the
bank would make a purchase this year.
"All I would say is that we're one of the interested parties
looking at assets within Asia," he told ABC television.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that ANZ was one of
three banks considering buying RBS's Asian assets, which it said
could be worth US$1.8 billion.
Such a purchase would fit in with ANZ's long-term strategy to
become a major player in Asia.
Smith had pushed for ANZ to become a "regional super bank" since
he joined the organization from HSBC in October 2007 and said his
tenure would be judged on the strategy's success.
"Very much so," he said. "I mean this is a dynastic thing.
"I can only put in place the platform and the foundations for
this, it will take many years for us to achieve.
"But banking is a long play and one of the problems that banks
have got themselves into recently is they have become very
short-term focused and I don't believe in that."
He pointed to half-year results released last week showing ANZ's
Asian operations posted an increase in underlying earnings of
almost 100%, while the bank's general underlying earnings increased
only 4%.
"The strategy is only 18 months old and we've made some real
serious headway so I'm very pleased about that," he said.
RBS's Asian sale stems from its takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro
in 2007, which proved to be a heavy burden and forced huge asset
writedowns in the face of the global finance crisis.