Research Dec 2009
Commercial Banks
Brett Le Mesurier & Azib Khan 17-Dec-2009
NAB has announced a $4.6b bid for AXA’s Australian and New Zealand businesses, which is $200m more than the AMP bid. NAB’s bid equates to $6.43 per AXA share and the AXA board didn’t take long to accept it which shows how much they didn’t like AMP.
Brett Le Mesurier & Azib Khan 07-Dec-2009
NAB has $100B more in liabilities than assets at call and a further $60B more in liabilities than assets within the 0-3 month maturity band. The company has advised that this is not a problem because APRA and the board have reviewed the situation and are happy with it.
Brett Le Mesurier & Azib Khan 03-Dec-2009
Bank of Queensland Limted (BOQ) needs its funding costs to reduce to enable it to meet its ROE objectives. A simple way to achieve this is for the Australian government to reduce the cost of the guarantee on wholesale borrowings for banks rated BBB+ and below.
Insurance
Brett Le Mesurier & Anthony Vogel 14-Dec-2009
AMP and AXA SA announced today they have increased their joint bid for AXA APH by 54 cps for minority AXA shareholders and 2 board seats for AXA APH directors. Interestingly, the increased bid was not immediately rejected by the AXA APH board.