ANZ's Suncorp deal gets lukewarm market response on integration risk fears
Reaction to the approval of ANZ's deal to buy Suncorp has been polarised with the market split between short and long term gratification (or disappointment).
ANZ luminaries gathered in a large meeting room on the top floor of its Docklands headquarters in Melbourne on Tuesday morning. They joined the thousands online who were watching a webcast of Justice John Halley from the Australian Competition Tribunal deliver a Rob Oakeshott-like performance in teasing out approval of ANZ’s deal to buy Suncorp Bank.
There was, if not raucous cheering and party poppers, considerable delight and relief, and chief executive Shayne Elliott promptly headed down a few levels to congratulate the team working on the deal.
But ironically, according to several senior executives Capital Brief spoke to, there was quite a lot of cheering at rival banks too.
“They are about to enter a world of pain,” one said. Bank mergers are notorious destroyers of value and integration inevitably is more complex than expected, synergies harder to extract, and management distraction a real issue.
