ANZ's New Zealand arm has dropped its plans to sell UDC Finance and will instead focus on growing the company. It ends a saga of thwarted attempts to offload the finance arm,  notably a sale to Chinese conglomerate HNC for NZ $660 million that was rejected by the Overseas Investment Office. ANZ New Zealand has also decided against listing the company. CEO David Hisco said all UDC sale discussions have been out on hold and the focus would now be on growing the business. The announcement came as ANZ's Kiwi arm reported a 3 per cent increase in cash earnings over the year to September (up to NZ$1.9 billion), a 3 per cent rise in both net interest income and operating costs, and a shrinking of impairment charges on bad debts by 10 per cent.