An Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Banking Group office in Ho Chi Minh City.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. will pay about A$1.1 billion (US$920 million) to buy branches in six Asian countries and territories from Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, the Australian Financial Review reported.

“Discussions with RBS regarding selected assets in Asia are continuing and progressing well,” Paul Edwards, a spokesman for Melbourne-based ANZ told Bloomberg News. He declined to comment on specific operations ANZ may be interested in. “There’s no agreement that’s been reached at this stage.”

ANZ, Australia’s fourth-biggest lender by assets, last month sold A$2.2 billion of stock to shareholders, more than six times the amount the lender announced in May, as it bids for RBS’s Asian units.

The process with ANZ is “very well advanced,” RBS Australia spokeswoman Jill Valentine said. She declined to elaborate.

Results looming

RBS may conclude talks on the sale of its Asian assets with ANZ and the other bidder Standard Chartered Plc. to coincide with its half-year results on August 7, the Sydney Morning Herald said in a separate report, without saying where it got the information. Standard Chartered leads in the discussions for RBS’s China and India operations, the newspaper said.

ANZ may buy RBS’s units in at least five Asian countries and territories as Britain’s biggest government-controlled bank splits its assets in the region to attract buyers, three people familiar with the plan told Bloomberg last month. ANZ is in advanced negotiations to acquire RBS’s retail and commercial-banking units in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia, the people said.

Source: Bloomberg