ANZ to sell Shanghai Rural bank stake for $1.3bn

Australia & New Zealand Banking Corp sold its 20% stake in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank for A$1.84 billion ($1.32 billion), in Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott’s latest move to unwind an Asian expansion that sapped profits, Bloomberg reports. China Cosco Shipping Corp. and Shanghai Sino-Poland Enterprise Management Development Corp. will each buy a 10% stake in the Chinese bank, the Melbourne-based company said in a statement Tuesday. The stake was valued at A$2 billion in ANZ’s 2015 annual report. “The sale reflects our strategy to simplify our business and improve capital efficiency,” ANZ Deputy CEO Graham Hodges said in the statement, adding it would allow the bank to focus resources on its Asian institutional business. The sale will increase ANZ’s tier one capital ratio by about 40 basis points, the bank said.