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NAB's hopes for Axa dashed

National Australia Bank's takeover hopes for Axa Asia Pacific have been dashed as competition regulators in Australia knocked back its bid for a second time.The bank had hoped a deal to sell Axa's North wealth.net retail investment platform to fund manage

Georgina Bond
Thu, 09 Sep 2010

National Australia Bank’s takeover hopes for Axa Asia Pacific have been dashed as competition regulators in Australia knocked back its bid for a second time.

The bank had hoped a deal to sell Axa’s North wealth.net retail investment platform to fund manager IOOF Holdings would be enough to remedy concerns of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s after it first rejected the bid in April.

But the ACCC said today it remained opposed because the deal was likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition in the relevant retail investment platform market.

"The proposed undertakings offered by the parties do not provide sufficient certainty that the ACCC's competition concerns will be addressed," the commission said in a statement.

ACCC deputy chairman Peter Kell said the proposal placed a heavy reliance upon IOOF having the distribution capability to provide an effective competitive constraint to a combined National Australia Bank (NAB)-Axa tie-up.

NAB sees the wealth management industry as a key area for the bank to expand into and reduce the group’s dependency on banking.

The ACCC’s decision opens the path for rival fund manager AMP to revive its ambitions for Axa, after its November bid was rejected by Axa’s board as being too low.

Georgina Bond
Thu, 09 Sep 2010
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NAB's hopes for Axa dashed
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