Australia and New Zealand Banking Group completed the acquisition of Royal Bank of Scotland's retail and commercial banking assets in Hong Kong yesterday, part of the lender's focus on Asia's affluent population.
Australia's fourth-largest lender bought RBS' operations in six Asian countries for US$550 million last August, with Hong Kong the third market to complete the transition. Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia will follow in the next few months.
The acquisition of the RBS assets marks the second major foray by the Australian group into the region, after it bought Grindlays Bank in India and subsequently sold it to Standard Chartered in 2000. ANZ received 'in principle approval' for its Indian licence earlier this month to re-establish its presence there.
The Hong Kong acquisition will deliver more than 40,000 customers and 350 staff, but chief executive of Asia-Pacific, Europe and America Alex Thursby said as a new entrant to the market the bank will logically target the affluent segment rather than the mass market.
'We're starting at the top of the pyramid - if you start at the bottom, you need a huge base of retail customers. That would be a good business in Hong Kong if you set up here a hundred years ago,' Thursby said.
He added that following its success in Vietnam and Indonesia, the bank is now turning its focus to Greater China, where the group currently operates three branches, as well as a subsidiary in Chongqing.
Thursby said the group's next push will be westward, and that the bank has signed a letter of intent with the Chongqing government to open a branch there. It also expects to complete regulatory approvals by the end of the year to become a fully owned, locally incorporated bank subsidiary on the mainland.