By Denny Thomas
SYDNEY, Aug 5 (Reuters) - When Mike Smith took over as CEO of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in 2007 he had a clear mandate to take the bank into fast-growing Asian markets, pitting it against his former employer, HSBC.
On Tuesday, Smith moved one step closer to achieving that goal with a $550 million acquisition of a handful of key Asian assets from British lender Royal Bank of Scotland. But he still has a long way to go.
"No big deal" said a report from broker CLSA. Smith himself acknowledged the deal was not "transformational" and left open the option for more deals to help ANZ reach its target of generating a fifth of its revenue from Asia by 2012.
Smith, who grew up in Kenya, is a typical banker who even now prefers his tailor-made suits from Hong Kong, where he was based as the CEO of HSBC's Asian operations.
"His mandate is to leverage on his HSBC experience and further push into Asia. But he had a few other issues to deal with," said Sean Fenton, a fund manager with Tribeca Investment Partners, which oversees about $600 million including ANZ shares.
"This is his first move in terms of Asian expansion. That is clearly on the agenda," he said.
Very few Australian banks have dared to venture far from their home market and ANZ itself has a chequered history in overseas expansion. It sold its Indian operations in 2000 and is now scrambling to get back into the promising market.
Smith, a 52-year-old career banker, is hoping the economic downturn proves the right time to make the acquisitions needed to challenge Standard Chartered and HSBC and other entrenched players in Asia.
ANZ is buying the retail wealth and commercial businesses of RBS in Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong nearly at book value, which some analysts described as bargain, leaving Australia's No. 4 lender with plenty of firepower for more deals.
"We would look for opportunistic acquisitions as and when they come up. And the scale of this one is probably quite typical of what may well be available in the near future," Smith said.
PASSION FOR CARS & WINE
Married with three children, Smith's passion for cars and Australian wine are well known. And his blunt approach has made him popular with ANZ staff.
"He quite likes his English cars, the Aston Martins. He bought his DB4 here in Australia, which he is getting restored at the moment," an ANZ insider told Reuters, referring to the sports car sold by Aston Martin.
"Despite the fact that he appears like a traditional English banker, he is actually funny," the person added.
He can also be tough and experienced his share of challenges while at HSBC, including reportedly being passed over for the top job in 2005 and even an assassination attempt while heading the bank's operations in Argentina.
Smith had some tough words for his rivals: "Better watch out." (Editing by Anshuman Daga)