As Australian listed non-back lender Resimac snaps up Westpac’s $1.4bn to $1.6bn book of auto finance loans and lease receivables, the debate has now turned back to whether Westpac remains committed to its $1bn wealth management operation BT Panorama.
A number of non-core businesses have been divested by the lender in recent years, as it turns its focus back to improving its core operations, and BT Panorama was for sale through Morgan Stanley, but taken off the market when offers did not meet price expectations.
Now there’s a debate in the market as to whether newly appointed boss Anthony Miller will keep the business or offload it once he takes charge in December.
Westpac says it is not for sale, and some say it’s now core to the company as it remains in need of growth opportunities, but others believe Mr Miller, a former Goldman Sachs and Deutsche banker, will sell the business for the right price over time.
Already, Westpac’s general insurance unit has been sold to Allianz for about $700m and its life insurance business to Japan’s Dai-ichi for $900m.
The latest auto loan deal comes after DataRoom first flagged that the top four lender had the loans on the block.
Westpac said the sale (which was advised by investment bank Citi) would complete in the first half of next year, with the loans valued at between $1.4bn to $1.6bn.
As reported by DataRoom in July, the sale came after Westpac sold its motor vehicle dealer finance and novated leasing business to Cerberus Capital Management’s Angle Finance in 2021.
The deal included the loans, its strategic alliance agreements with vehicle manufacturers, and Novated lease origination capability and related agreements.
However, it retained its existing retail auto loans, at the time of around $10bn originated by the businesses being offloaded.
Westpac said at the time that the loans would be run down in the normal course of business over the life of those loans and the bank would progressively stop writing new business for auto loans, with customers instead able to use the bank’s Consumer and Business lending products to help buy motor vehicles.
These are the loans now purchased by the $348m Resimac, which said the deal supports the strategic growth objectives of Resimac’s asset finance division.
The understanding around the industry is that Westpac would have sold the entire unit in 2021, but parts were difficult to shift from its systems.
It is believed at the time that Westpac reaped about $400m from the sale initial sale to Angle Finance.
KKR seeks to offload Colonial First State stake
KKR is understood to be creating a data room for at least one prospective trade buyer to consider the $3bn-plus wealth management business, Colonial First State.
Anglo ready to announce winner of coal mine auction
A decision by Anglo American about its Queensland-based coal assets is believed imminent, a week on from when final bids were due.