Aussie bank eyes Malaysia, Thailand

Aussie bank eyes Malaysia, Thailand

MELBOURNE (Reuters): One of Australia's major banks said yesterday it was considering expanding into Thailand and Malaysia by acquisition, seizing on financial turmoil in the region to boost its Asian profile.

The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) said the heavy fall in Southeast Asian currencies and asset values was a chance for the bank to widen its Asian coverage and be better positioned to ride the next wave of economic growth.

"We have gaps in the network in Thailand and Malaysia and we are looking actively at how they can be plugged," the chief of ANZ's investment banking arm, John Sunderland, told Reuters.

Asked if the bank was considering acquisitions, he said: "We are looking at all sorts of possibilities, yes."

Sunderland declined to say how much ANZ was prepared to spend, saying: "We have not even got to that."

But he said ANZ's balance sheet was very strong and that any acquisition would be done as a group expansion rather than merely extending the reach of its ANZ Investment Banking unit.

Sunderland, formerly head of merchant banking for Barclays de Zoete Wedd (BZW), also denied rumors that ANZ was interested in buying his old employer's Australian operations.

British bank Barclays Plc this month put some of its BZW investment bank operations up for sale. It wants to sell the equities and mergers-and-acquisition sides of the business.

ANZ is rebuilding its equities business, but Sunderland said it was not bidding for either BZW or another major local brokerage asset up for sale, County Natwest Securities, a unit of Britain's National Westminster Bank Plc.

"I don't think we need to make an acquisition in this market," he said.

ANZ Investment Banking is firmly focused on Asia where it sees it has a strategic edge over other offshore merchant banks which cannot boast the same local experience, Sunderland said.