Reserve Bank of Fiji provides conditional approval to Kina Securities Limited
Reserve Bank of Fiji provides conditional approval to Kina Securities Limited
Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor Ariff Ali. [Image: File Photo]
The Reserve Bank Board has resolved that a conditional approval be granted on Kina Securities Limited’s application to take over Westpac Fiji.
The Westpac Group had announced on 7th December last year, its intention to sell the Westpac Pacific Business (Westpac Fiji and Westpac’s 89.91% stake in Westpac Bank PNG Limited) to Kina Securities Limited, subject to regulatory approvals in Fiji and PNG, and Kina Securities shareholder approval.
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The major bank has said that it is committed to the sale of its Pacific businesses despite a competition regulator knocking back their proposed acquisition.
In December 2020, Westpac Group announced that it was to sell Westpac Fiji and the bank’s 89.91 per cent stake in Westpac Bank PNG Ltd to Kina Securities Ltd (whose subsidiary Kina Bank bought ANZ’s retail, commercial and SME banking business in 2019).
The Westpac deal was estimated to be around $420 million and is subject to regulatory approvals in both Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG).
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Regulator knocks back Westpac’s sale of Pacific businesses By Neil Griffiths 27 July 2021
Westpac remains committed to the sale of its Pacific businesses despite a competition regulator knocking back a proposed acquisition.
The sale of Westpac Fiji and the bank’s 89.91 per cent stake in Westpac Bank PNG Limited to Kina Securities Limited for up to $420 million was announced in December last year. However, on Monday, the PNG Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) issued a draft determination stating it is “not currently satisfied that the acquisition will not, or will not likely, have the effect of substantially lessening competition in the relevant markets identified”.
Jul 27, 2021 â 12.19pm
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Papua New Guineaâs biggest lender, Bank of South Pacific, defied market orthodoxy in January when its chief executive, Robin Fleming, argued forcefully against Westpacâs proposed $420 million sale of its operations in the country to rival lender Kina Securities.
Bank of South Pacific CEO Robin Fleming.Â
Convention would hold that an acquisition aimed at reducing PNGâs oligopoly of three banks to two would benefit BSP â and its lenders â as the dominant lender in the Pacific country.
Indeed, an Australian Treasury paper by former Pacific division adviser Peter Biggs found that because of the ârelatively fewâ financial services organisations in the country, âcompetitive pressure is relatively lightâ.