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Australian banking major ANZ says it is entering perhaps the most important stage of its regional expansion strategy, and may spend more than $5 billion on strategic acquisition stakes in the two Asian based bank’s that it is currently looking at. Alex Thursby, the chief executive of the lenders international operations said that the chances of ANZ divesting its 49.5 per cent stake in Indonesia’s PT Bank Panin were nil, contradicting market speculation last week. “There’ve been rumours suggesting that we could be a seller, but I can’t conceive of a scenario where that’s likely,” he said. Currently ANZ has under ANZ has under consideration two multi-billion dollar deals for Asian based lenders, after having spent $660 million last year on acquiring some of RBS’s banking operations in the region. Last week, ANZ emerged as the clear frontrunner to acquire the $1.4 billion,46 per cent stake in Panin Bank from the Gunawan family that has been put on the block. ANZ currently has $4billion in excess capital, and that war chest currently makes it the most well capitalized Australian lender.

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ANZ May Spend As Much As $5 Billion on Asian Acquisitions