Esanda sale to contribute to ANZ's capital plan

The sale of ANZ's car dealer finance arm Esanda is "high likely", said the bank's chief financial officer, Shayne Elliott, in an interview published on ANZ's own Blue Notes website yesterday.

"It's a business that has attracted a lot of interest, both domestically and internationally," Elliott said.

"And we have now gone through to the second round where we've narrowed down the bidders in there, and we're having pretty intense discussions with them in that round. So that's proceeding really well."

He said: "the sale of that business, which I would say is highly likely, will contribute towards that capital plan that we have."

Elliott also provided some commentary on prospects for the long speculated sale of one or more of the ANZ's minority holdings in banks in Asia.

"We've got around half a dozen minority stakes in banks in Asia, those are attractive properties to a range of different investors.

"But they are complicated situations, we are generally in a partner with other investors in those places so that will take time and work through."

ANZ, meanwhile may take a cautious approach to opportunities presented by fintech.

"I don't believe we should be setting up a corporate venture unit," Patrick Maes, the bank's chief technology officer, wrote in a separate article on the Blue Notes site.

"Not so much from an investment perspective - everybody can throw money around - but more from a capability perspective, like the ability to guide start-ups through the multiple phases of growth, which is the critical skill of successful VCs.

"The main assets of banks are our ability to provide reliable and secure services for our customers, at scale, together with our experience and most of all trust. These are some of the assets we bring to any relationship and especially to start-ups."