Two top Australian banks cancel IPOs after inquiry into finance sector
The inquiry found banks lending without doing basic checks to ensure customers could afford loans, and how they took fees from customers' accounts without providing them with services
Sydney — Struggling to adjust in the face of a damning inquiry into the financial sector, two of Australia's top banks shelved plans for share market spin-offs on Wednesday while its biggest wealth manager faced an investor revolt over a cut-price asset sale. In a surprise change of plan, leading lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia said it would no longer include Colonial First State Global Asset Management in a planned share market float and would instead sell Colonial to Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) for $2.9bn. “Strategically, selling it reduces the attractiveness of the impending float of CBA's wealth management and mortgage broking businesses as [Colonial] was the cherry on that particular cupcake,” said Hugh Dive, chief investment officer at Atlas Funds Management. Third-ranked Australia and New Zealand Banking (ANZ) meanwhile pulled a listing of a New Zealand vehicle and equipment leasing unit as it posted its second decline in annual profit in three years. ...
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