Australian bank ANZ says it is considering selling parts of its New Zealand operations.
Chief executive Mike Smith said: "There has been talk of possibly floating off some of the businesses. It's something we will continue to look at."
New Zealand accounts for 22 per cent of earnings,
but Smith wants to reduce it to 20 per cent.
"Right now I'm not too worried, as long as it provides a reasonable return," he said.
ANZ Banking Group has set itself the ambitious target of doubling its annual profit to A$8 billion ($9.1 billion) and expanding its Asian operations to account for 20 per cent of group earnings in five years.
Eleven weeks after he took the helm of ANZ from John McFarlane, Smith has set the "aspirational target" of doubling by 2012 last year's A$3.924 billion profit after one-off items.
"That is clearly a very ambitious target but we need to stop thinking in incremental steps if we wish to break out of the pack," he told analysts at a briefing ahead of the annual general meeting in Perth. ANZ will focus on Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia and wants to be a "leading foreign bank" in China and potentially India.
- AAP
