“ANZ is getting a nice mix,” said Peter Vann, who manages more than $600 million at Constellation Capital Management Ltd. in Sydney, including ANZ Bank shares. “The growth in the Asian markets I think will be a positive for them. It’s a nice little diversifying earner.”

ANZ Chief Executive Officer Michael Smith is expanding in Asia as swelling bad loans at home squeeze profit, prompting the bank to cut its dividend for the first time since the 1991 recession. Smith, who previously headed HSBC Holdings Plc’s Asian division, is aiming to increase the proportion of income derived from the continent to 20 percent.

ANZ Bank’s shares slipped 1.4 percent to A$16.26 at 12:23 p.m. in Sydney, trimming this year’s advance to 6.3 percent.

RBS is seeking to trim its operations in 36 countries and economies that make up two-thirds of its international business after posting the biggest loss in British corporate history last year.

Government bailout

CEO Stephen Hester, who replaced Fred Goodwin after RBS sought a government bailout, is breaking up the bank’s Asian operation after potential bidders showed more interest in buying individual operations than the whole business, the people said.

ANZ disclosed its interest in RBS’s Asian units on May 27 and the negotiations are continuing, said Paul Edwards, a spokesman for the bank.

“For ANZ, the outcome remains unknown,” he said.

Michael Strachan, a spokesman for RBS in Edinburgh declined to comment. Gabriel Kwan, a Hong Kong spokeswoman for Standard Chartered, also declined to comment.

ANZ sold A$2.5 billion ($2 billion) worth of shares in May to fund a bid for RBS’s Asian assets.

Expansion in Asia

The Australian bank said in January it paid $114 million to increase its stake in Indonesia’s PT Bank Panin to benefit from rising demand for banking in Asia’s third-most populous nation. ANZ also said it planned to open six new offices in Vietnam.

ANZ has more investments in Asia than its Australian rivals, including a 20 percent stake in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank. It also has a holding in Saigon Securities Inc. and a stake in Malaysia’s AMMB Holdings Bhd.

HSBC, which also focuses on emerging markets, declined to comment through its London spokesman Patrick McGuinness.

Standard Chartered Chief Executive Officer Peter Sands said on March 17 the bank may consider purchases in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The bank raised 1.8 billion pounds in a December rights offering.

Source: Bloomberg