Trio of banks said to be eyeing National Bank

By PAULA OLIVER

Three strong contenders are leading the hunt for the National Bank.

The Business Herald understands that the three, most likely to be ANZ, Westpac and HSBC, are now conducting due diligence on the prized New Zealand asset.



Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which owns ASB, said yesterday it was not involved.

The National Bank has attracted the interest of all of Australia's major banks since Lloyds TSB put it up for sale.

It is considered to be a strong, efficient operation and one which Australians will have difficulty hooking because they are likely to have to raise capital first.

Australian media is rife with speculation about which of its major banks are in the hunt, and gamesmanship is evident in the way some of the contenders are going about their business.

It has been suggested that one bank has chosen to hold back an application for clearance from the Commerce Commission - allowing others to engage in the process of arguing its case while it watches.

ANZ and Westpac have been open about their roles in the process and have already lodged applications at the commission.

Westpac has said it will not proceed with a purchase unless it meets the bank's strategic direction, enhances shareholder value, and does not divert from its core organic growth strategy.

A banking source yesterday said that other contenders might not want to be so open because they wanted to protect their share prices.

"Everybody has got an incentive to posture about this. Nobody wants their stock price to go down. If you're going to raise equity it might be better to sit at the back."

Speculation over the involvement of London-based giant HSBC has in recent weeks pointed to it losing interest in the National Bank.

But it is more capable of pulling off a $6 billion or $7 billion purchase than any other contender.

Its pretax profit in the first half of 2003 was $10.57 billion.