Banking

ONTROL of banking in the V South Pacific continues to become concentrated in the hands of Australian companies, with ANZ bidding for Niugini-Lloyd’s Inter national Bank, of Papua New Guinea, and the Bank of New Zealand selling out of the Bank of Tonga with Westpac picking up part of its share.

ANZ is offering K 4.5 million (U 554.59 million) for Niugini-Lloyd, a company owned by Lloyds Bank Pic of Britain (49 per cent), the Papua New Guinea Gov ernment (35 per cent) and local share holders (16 per cent). It was one of two largely foreign-owned banks granted li cences in the early 1980 s, but one which never looked like becoming a major fi gure in the Papua New Guinea banking scene. Niugini-Lloyd has 80 staff and three branches Port Moresby, Arawa and Lae. The bid is supported by the Bank of Papua New Guinea and the Government, but conditional on 90 per cent shareholder acceptance.

ANZ chief executive Will Bailey said ANZ’s presence in Papua New Guinea dated back to 1910, and the bank has eight branches in the country and em ploys 300 people. “Expansion in the Pacific Islands is also a key part of our Asia-Pacific strategy,” said Bailey. This strategy was built around projected trade flows. ANZ believed 50 per cent of Au stralian and New Zealand trade would be with the Asia-Pacific region by the year 2000.

ANZ Bank recently acquired the Fiji and Western Samoan interests of the Bank of New Zealand, but BNZ’s 20 per cent stake in the Bank of Tonga has gone elsewhere: Split between Westpac and the Bank of Hawaii. They will now each hold 30 per cent of the Bank of Tonga, with the remaining 40 per cent staying in the Tongan Government’s hands. BNZ bought the 20 per cent stake in 1972. D