ANZ signs shares

with Samoa bank

ANZ Bank is to take control of the Bank of Western Samoa by adding half the government’s share to the 50 per cent interest already acquired from the Bank of New Zealand. This means that the bank will be 75 per cent owned by ANZ, with the other 25 per cent remaining in the government’s hands. The agreement was signed in Washington while both the Western Samoa Finance Minister Tuilaepa Sailele and ANZ chief executive Will Bailey were attending a World Bank conference in the US capital.

The purchase price for the govern ment’s sale of 25 per cent will be based on the completion of a final audit. The Bank of Western Samoa transacts about three quarters of the country’s banking business and has assets of WS$lO6 million

(U 5545.69 million).

The deal follows ANZ’s purchase of the Bank of New Zealand’s Pacific Islands operations. ANZ said taking over the New Zealand Bank in Fiji has increased its own market share in that country from 20 to 50 per cent. “Expansion in the Pacific Islands is a key part of ANZ’s Asia- Pacific strategy, which is built around the trade flows between Australia, New Zea land and the Pacific. ANZ now has operations in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Western Samoa, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and the Cook Islands.

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