ANZ caravan heads to Brissie

ANZ boss Shayne Elliott is trekking north to Brisbane for the bank’s annual general meeting and perhaps to prepare for the big move into Suncorp Bank HQ next year.

ANZ boss Shayne Elliott is trekking north for the bank’s annual general meeting on Thursday and perhaps to prepare for the big move into Suncorp Bank HQ next year.

Elliott is expected to give an update to local shareholders on the bank’s proposed $4.9bn takeover of Suncorp’s banking operation. The fate of the takeover is now in the hands of the powerful Australian Competition Tribunal after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s decision to kybosh the deal earlier this year.

A two-week hearing before the tribunal that finished last week centred on different interpretations of national competition law and whether the ACCC’s decision should be overturned. ANZ claims Suncorp is too small to pose any threat to competition in the crucial national home lending market. Suncorp makes up less than 2 per cent of national banking assets and has numerous larger competitors.

The ACCC counters that the deal would entrench the market power of the big four banks and give consumers a worse deal, especially in home lending.

,ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott heading to Brisbane.

The ACCC is pushing a regional bank tie-up between Bendigo Bank and Suncorp, arguing this would provide a competitive counterpoint to the market-dominating big banks.

The State Government is banking on a green light for the deal given ANZ has made a commitment to allocate $15bn of new lending to support Queensland projects, including Green Olympic Games infrastructure projects and renewable projects.

The lending commitment supports renewable energy targets and infrastructure development. The new lending will be offered over a 10-year period and will support both renewable projects and preparations for the 2032 Olympic Games. The tribunal will announce its decision on February 20.

Brisbane means business

Brisbane is set to overtake Melbourne and Sydney as the top destination for business travellers, with a 20 per cent increase in bookings compared to last year’s leading spot, Melbourne. The findings come from Corporate Traveller, the flagship SME division of Flight Centre Travel Group, that compared air, car, rail and hotel bookings by its corporate customers to 35 of Australia’s major holiday hotspots from 15 December to 26 January in 2022-23 and 2023-24. To date, Brisbane bookings have outpaced Melbourne’s by 20 per cent and Sydney’s by 25 per cent. In contrast, last year Melbourne was the most popular city for bookings, beating Sydney by 7 per cent and Brisbane by 3 per cent in bookings. Corporate Traveller global managing director Tom Walley says Brisbane has long held a reputation of being the more relaxed capital. “It has a burgeoning population and a growing number of restaurants, cafes and cultural offerings,” says Whalley. “This, along with its exceptional weather compared with extended heatwaves in Sydney and high rainfall in Melbourne at the moment, has possibly steered more people toward Brisbane this holiday season.”

Brisbane now top business destination,

UniQuest hire

Veteran corporate advisor Andrew Morgan has joined the board of UniQuest, the commercialisation company of The University of Queensland. Morgan has more than 27 years’ experience in investment banking and private equity, gained in various roles in Australia and the UK. In 2009, he established Catapult Partners, providing corporate advisory services, investor relations and propriety investment. Catapult recently entered an exclusive partnership with BTIG, a global investment bank, to leverage its platform and coverage.