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ANZ, Prudential eye expansion in Vietnam
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and Prudential Plc. plan to expand aggressively in Vietnam as they seek new sources of growth amid financial turmoil in their home markets.
ANZ last month won a license allowing it to open new branches and expand its services in Vietnam, joining HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered in setting up wholly foreign-owned banks.
“We really need to pursue the markets where there is considerable growth,” Philip Crouch, general manager of retail banking for ANZ in Vietnam, said at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday.
Investors in Vietnam stand to benefit from an economy which the government expects will grow at least 6.5 percent this year and next. In contrast, Australia’s central bank on Monday cut its growth forecast to 1.5 percent and the UK’s gross domestic product shrank in the third quarter as the credit crisis hobbles developed markets.
“Look at the current situation in places like Australia or New Zealand,” Ho Chi Minh City-based Crouch said. “Things are going to be quite tough for the next couple of years.”
Melbourne-based ANZ’s Asia-Pacific executives met in Singapore last week to look for ways to “exploit the current situation” in China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, Crouch said.
Prudential, the leading foreign firm in Vietnam’s life insurance market, may bid for American International Group’s assets in Asia as market turmoil causes the company to push back targets of doubling new business profit in Asia, Chief Executive Mark Tucker said last month.
“We do expect some of our competitors to pull back a little, but we’re in the lucky position of being able to expand,” Jack Howell, HCMC-based chief executive of Prudential’s Vietnam unit, said at Monday’s conference.
Bloomberg
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