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Battle Is Joined To Buy AXA Assets In Australia
The game’s afoot in Australia’s wealth management industry in the battle for AXA’s domestic assets, with AMP letting its exclusive rights to negotiate lapse at this week's deadline.
The game’s afoot in Australia’s wealth management industry in the battle for AXA’s domestic assets, with AMP letting its exclusive rights to negotiate lapse at this week's deadline.
AMP has bid A$11 billion (around $9.55 billion) to buy AXA Asia Pacific Holdings, which has a 54 per cent stake in AXA Australia, and had an exclusivity agreement to negotiate with AXA which lapsed this week.
AMP’s inaction paves the way for Big-Four bank AMP to pursue its rival A$11.5 billion bid, with local reports claiming that NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne has led a team to France to start talks with AXA’s French parent. The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported that Clyne had boarded a plane in Melbourne bound for Paris with a team of his senior executives to meet with AXA management.
“There’s a positive buzz about it in the office,” said one NAB banker.
“They are playing their cards close to their chest and I’m not in the inner sanctum, but it would a great result if they could bring home the bacon,” the banker said.
Neither AMP or NAB are interested in the Asia Pacific assets of AXA, even though they are performing better than those in Australia. AMP wants AXA to agree to separate the Asian assets from the Australian, which its bid values at around A$4.6 billion. NAB also wants the AXA parent to stump up A$9 billion to retain the Asian business.
AMP chief executive has reportedly told his staff that any AXA deal is not a “strategic must-do” for the insurer and bancassurance giant, which had hoped to use any AXA takeover to play catch up on the Big Four Australian banks, all of which have used the recent financial turmoil to take advantage of consolidation in the Australian wealth management market.
At the time of AMP’s bid for AXA last November, AMP was ranked fifth with 12.3 per cent of Australia’s wealth management industry, with NAB boasting the biggest share at 15.4 per cent.
AXA hold sixth place with 7 per cent of Australia’s A$1 trillion pensions industry, meaning that whoever is successful in purchasing the company will be well and away the leader in Australian wealth management going forward.
