Heavies circle Westpac assets

Westpac may have suspended plans to sell its equipment finance business for now, but even so an interesting group of names has emerged among those knocking on its door to buy the assets.

DataRoom can reveal that among the groups eager to buy the portfolio are Cerberus Capital Management, the Bank of Queensland and Bain Capital.

Cerberus has been active in the market of late, circling the Silver Chef equipment lending business.

Bain Capital has also been in search of assets.

While the portfolio has been held for now, some believe it is only a matter of time before it once again comes up for offer because it is non-core for the bank.

The loan book is said to be worth about $600m and was purchased from former HBOS subsidiary Bankwest at the time Westpac acquired its car finance and auto loans business.

The reason for the bank to offload the assets could be that the loan book is too small and capital-intensive for Westpac and could not be supported by the bank’s IT systems.

But it is understood the loan book has been performing well and there has been no pressing need to sell it.