ANZ boss Elliott wields axe on Asia units to boost returns

Sydney

JUST 10 months into the top job and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) boss Shayne Elliott is taking an axe to much of his predecessor's Asian legacy.

The chief executive officer of the Melbourne-based lender announced the sale of retail and wealth-management operations in five Asian markets on Monday and signalled the possibility of more divestments to come: stakes in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, Bank of Tianjin Co, PT Bank Pan Indonesia and Malaysia's AMMB Holdings Bhd are under review as the bank refocuses its efforts toward domestic markets and its Asian institutional operations. Such assets are "no longer core", Mr Elliott said on a conference call on Monday. "If you don't have sufficient scale, over time it just becomes uneconomical."