By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Shinsei Bank (T:8303) sealed its biggest overseas acquisition to date, announcing on Tuesday that it would buy UDC Finance, New Zealand’s biggest non-bank financier.
Shinsei will pay NZ$762 million ($476.801 million) to owner Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, with UDC to become a wholly-owned subsidiary.
UDC provides car loans as well as asset financing, products also offered by some Shinsei units, and fits into the bank’s focus on small-scale finance.
“Through this stock acquisition, and by leveraging its expertise in small-scale finance business, Shinsei Bank envisages further growth of UDC in New Zealand where the GDP growth rate is relatively high among the developed countries,” the bank said in a statement.
Shinsei last tapped markets overseas in 2006, when it paid around JPY 40 billion ($371.64 million) for a stake in Taiwanese bank Jih Sun Financial.
Meanwhile, ANZ finally offloaded an asset that it has tried to sell several times, with the last attempt to sell it to China’s HNA Group for NZ$ 660 million blocked by the New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Office in December 2017.
Shinsei stocks were up 2.04% to JPY1403 ($13.035) by 12:51 PM ET (5:52 AM GMT).