SYDNEY, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has raised its capital by a further 10 basis points on Wednesday after selling its UDC Asset Finance business to China's HNA Group for 660 million New Zealand dollars (462 million U.S. dollars).
"The sale reflects a continued focus by ANZ on simplifying its business and capital efficiency," the bank said in a statement to the ASX.
"HNA Group is one of the world's largest asset finance and leasing companies, and it intends to preserve operations including offering continued employment to all staff," it said.
ANZ has embarked on a strategy to simplify its business and improve capital efficiency, including a pull-back from its aggressive Asian expansion under former chief, strengthening its position in the domestic market via a series of assets sales and focusing on its offshore institutional business.
"The deal would deliver ANZ's strongest capital ratio against its rivals," analyst Bell Potter told Fairfax Media.
In October 2016, ANZ announced it would sell its retail banking network in Asia, effective mid-2017 and in January 2017 it offloaded its 20-percent stake in a Shanghai commercial bank in a deal worth 1.3 billion U.S. dollars.
ANZ at the time said it would use the sale's proceeds to increase its tier one capital ratio by approximately 40 basis points.
ANZ's shares fell 0.26 percent to 31.20 Australian dollars on Wednesday, in line with the broader financial sector.
