The Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) said Tuesday it planned to double profits to more than 8.0 billion dollars (6.85 billion US) in the next five years as it expands operations in Asia. ANZ chief executive Michael Smith said the bank's Asian business was expected to account for 20 percent of earnings within that time.
"Our aspiration is that over the next five years we can develop Asia to a size where it is as big as our New Zealand business," Smith said at the bank's annual general meeting. The bank recorded 4.18 billion dollars in cash net profit for the year to September, with New Zealand generating 975 million dollars and the Asia-Pacific 293 million dollars. Smith, who joined ANZ in October from HSBC in Hong Kong, repeated his goal for ANZ to become a "super regional bank" by 2012.
But he said this would only occur if the bank doubled its profit and derived 20 percent of earnings from Asia. ANZ has operations in China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia but generates 95 percent of its earnings in Australia and New Zealand.
Earlier, the bank's chairman Charles Goode urged the government to relax the "Four Pillars" policy, which he said was preventing the bank from taking full advantage of Asian opportunities.
The policy prohibits mergers between the four biggest banks in Australia - the National Australia Bank (NAB), Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac. But Goode said such a policy was out-dated. "It is in Australia's long-term economic interest to allow Australian banks to grow to a size where they can compete effectively in the region," he said.
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