Suncorp attracts private equity interest

JC Flowers has kicked tyres, and maybe more, on the merit of making a bid for Suncorp Metway, The Australian reported.

The private equity firm is headed in Australia these days by David Morgan, former chief executive of Westpac.

Westpac made an unconfirmed bid for Suncorp in 2006. ANZ made an actual (and low ball) bid in October 2008 - a rescue offer, in practice - that the Suncorp board was able to reject only due to the announcement of the Australian government guarantee on deposits that stemmed a deposit outflow.

While private equity firms have taken over banks outright in a number of OECD markets, such as South Korea, any takeover bid for an Australian bank and insurance group would be unusual given the traditional position of APRA and its predecessors that banks must be widely owned and have ready access to equity capital, or, otherwise, must be owned by another bank.