One of Australia’s big four banks has stepped away from the sale of its $14 billion asset management subsidiary.
Westpac has ended discussions after the prospective bidder, Charter Hall, informed the Australian Stock Exchange it had decided not to proceed.
Charter Hall had originally entered talks with Westpac regarding the potential acquisition of Hastings Funds Management, the global real assets and infrastructure manager, in July.
It is understood the business is likely to be put up for sale again, although Westpac may need to go back to the drawing board in considering new suitors.
Changing Times
Australian banks have been actively paring back and calibrating their traditional banking business models while also exiting sectors and markets not aligned to their new core strategy.
Under the leadership of CEO Andrew Thorburn, National Australia Bank has been disposing of poorly performing or non-core businesses, especially offshore.
Unwanted Wealth
NAB recently announced that it has agreed to sell a 55 percent interest in its asset consulting business JANA to the Jana senior management team this followed close on the heels of NAB's sale of its Private Wealth business in Singapore and Hong Kong to Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, (OCBC).
That deal mirrored the move by fellow Australian lender ANZ, who sold off Asian wealth units to Singapore's DBS Bank.
At the time NAB said its focus in Asia would turn to Business, Corporate and Institutional Banking, a sentiment and business move shared by ANZ.
