ANZ Group, Australia’s fourth-largest bank, has fully exited its investment in Malaysian lender AMMB Holdings by selling its entire 5.2% stake for up to $149 million, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters.
The stake exit comes three years after ANZ announced it would write down the value of its investment in AMMB after the Malaysian bank settled a claim linked to the massive financial scandal at state fund 1MDB.
In March, ANZ had sold its 16.5% interest in the Malaysian firm for about 2.10 billion ringgit ($446.6 million), aligning with its strategy to shrink low-returning business lines and reduce exposure to retail and wealth banking in Asia to boost return on equity.
The latest sale of AMMB shares was executed via a block trade, with ANZ offering a total of 171 million shares to potential investors, the term sheet showed.
The shares were sold at a total price range of $147 million to $149 million, and offered at 4.05 to 4.10 ringgit per share. The offer price represents a discount of up to 4.2% to AMMB’s last closing price of 4.22 ringgit on Thursday.
Bank of America and CIMB are the joint placement agents for the deal, according to the term sheet.
In a response to query from Reuters late Thursday evening, AMMB said this is a shareholder matter and they are following through what they have announced in the past.
“It is business as usual for AMMB Group and we would like to thank ANZ and their board representatives who have been very supportive to the group all these years,” AMMB added.
ANZ did not respond to a request seeking comment on Thursday outside of working hours.
Reuters