Westpac Agrees To Buy Lloyds Australia Assets For A$1.45 Bln

(RTTNews) - Westpac Banking Corp.(WBK, WBC.AX) announced that it has agreed to buy Lloyds Banking Group's Australian asset finance business, CFAL, and its corporate loan portfolio, BOSI, for A$1.45 billion. The purchase price includes about A$1.19 billion of net tangible assets and A$260 million in goodwill. The deal is expected to be completed on December 31,2013. Westpac has notified the Australian Competition & Consumer commission of the transaction and is co-operating with its informal merger review process.

The company said that the transaction meets strict acquisition criteria and shareholders will see a benefit to earnings per share in fiscal 2014. The acquisition is expected to add A$100 million to cash earnings by fiscal 2015.Integration costs are expected to be about A$130 million and ongoing synergies about A$70 million before tax per annum.

Westpac also stated that it will gain A$2.9 billion in equipment finance, A$3.9 billion in motor vehicle finance, A$1.6 billion in corporate loans. The acquisition will be funded from internal resources and is estimated to have a 38 basis point impact on Westpac's Common Equity Tier 1 Ratio.