ANZ exits another market with pullout from Papua New Guinea

The bank is concentrating on institutional and corporate banking.

Australian lender ANZ has entered into an agreement to sell its retail, commercial and small-medium sized enterprise (SME) banking business in Papua New Guinea to Kina Bank as the lender trims down its banking empire in a series of divestments in an effort to focus solely on institutional and corporate banking.

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The sale, which includes all 15 ANZ branches, manages an estimated $110.65m (~AUD$150m) in lending assets and $331.91m (~AUD$450m) in deposits.

ANZ has previously announced the sales of its retail and wealth businesses in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Vietnam.

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“Our retail, commercial and SME operations in PNG are strong, successful businesses that will benefit from Kina Bank’s focus on retail banking. ANZ will continue to service multinational corporations and large corporates operating in PNG,” ANZ managing director for institutional Australia Graham Turley said in a statement. 

Just last month, ANZ agreed to sell its 55% stake in Cambodian JV ANZ Royal Bank to Japanese financial holding company J Trust following earlier announced stake sales in Metrobank Card Corporation in the Philippines and Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank in China, as well as its Australian life insurance and superannuation businesses.