BNZ will be back in the wealth management game in a big way if its parent company National Australia Bank’s surprise deal to buy Axa Asia Pacific goes through.

Earlier this week AMP and Paris-based Axa SA, which owns 53% of Axa Asia Pacific, boosted their offer for Axa Asia Pacific from A5.34 to A$6.22 per share, putting the company’s value at A$12.85 billion.

But NAB has come from nowhere with a bigger bid, announcing yesterday it had agreed to a deal to buy Axa Asia Pacific’s Australia and New Zealand assets for A$13.29 billion.

The deal has been supported by Axa Asia Pacific’s board but will require the approval of Axa SA to be successful.

If it went through it would make BNZ the second largest fund manager in New Zealand with approximately $7 billion under management.

Unusually, the deal was announced via an NAB teleconference.

“The independent board committee has unanimously concluded that the NAB proposal is in the best interests of Axa Asia Pacific minority shareholders and superior to the rejected AMP/Axa SA revised proposal, in both its value and terms,” Axa Asia Pacific chairman Rick Allert said in a statement yesterday.
“We believe the NAB proposal recognises the strength of this franchise and its growth prospects.”

BNZ Investment Management, which had about $2.4 billion in funds under management, was sold to Axa Asia Pacific in 2005.

Earlier this year NAB bought an 80.1% stake in Goldman Sachs JBWere’s private wealth management business in Australia and New Zealand.

AMP isn’t entirely out of the game yet- it said it had an exclusivity agreement with Axa SA that lasts until February 6.