ANZ makes a move for RBS Asian assets

Well well well,

According to the WSJ ANZ bank supposedly eyeing RBS's Asian assets.

RBS in Talks With ANZ to Sell Some Asian Assets

LONDON -- Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC is in talks to sell its retail and commercial assets in Asia to Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. for about £1 billion ($1.43 billion), according to a person close to the situation, part of a new initiative to sell noncore assets and sharply narrow the banking giant's global ambitions.

The assets, which are in India, Taiwan, Indonesia and elsewhere, are a portion of the Asian assets acquired by RBS when it led a consortium to buy part of ABN Amro Holding NV in 2007. At the time, RBS paid £10 billion for its part of ABN, which included the Asian businesses and wholesale-banking operations in Europe.

An ANZ spokeswoman declined to comment.

The talks indicate that RBS Chief Executive Stephen Hester is moving ahead quickly with plans announced last week to identify and dispose of "noncore" businesses.

Mr. Hester's plan is aimed at trimming some 20% from the bank's £2 trillion balance sheet to help turn the troubled lender around. As a result, many other parts of the bank's global banking and markets division are also expected to be sold off over the next three to five years, as RBS retrenches...

(Continued here in the WSJ)

RBS is HSBC's single biggest shareholder.

Is HSBC an 'Asian asset'? Probably not. But RBS is definitely thinking of selling its HSBC shares.

Would ANZ step up and buy it?

Wouldn't it be ironic if HSBC's biggest shareholder will be ANZ bank? One run by none other than former HSBC HK CEO 邵銘高 Michael Smith?

The picture below is one that accompanied my entry 'HSBC = Titanic' back in June 15 2007.