Westpac entered into an agreement to acquire Lloyds Banking Group’s Australian asset finance business and corporate loan portfolio in early October, including Capital Finance Australia (CFA) and BOS International Australia (BOSI).
Westpac and Lloyds, through their respective subsidiaries St George and CFA, compete in the supply of floor plan financing to motor vehicle dealerships, point-of-sale retail finance to customers of motor vehicle dealerships and equipment finance.
“The ACCC conducted extensive market enquiries and concluded that the proposed acquisition by Westpac of Lloyds would be unlikely to result in a substantial lessening of competition in any relevant market,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
“One of the central issues to the ACCC’s investigation was determining the degree of competition provided by manufacturer-aligned motor vehicle financiers, such as Toyota Financial Services and Nissan Financial Services, for non-aligned motor vehicle financiers, such as the merger parties, Esanda and Macquarie Bank,” he added.
The ACCC stated it consulted “widely” with a range of interested parties, including motor vehicle dealerships, providers of floor plan financing, point-of-sale finance and other financial institutions, finance brokers, motor vehicle manufacturers and various industry bodies to reach its decision.
Westpac previously stated the deal is expected to be completed on 31 December 2013, with chief executive Gail Kelly describing the acquisition as a “straight forward transaction that makes both commercial and strategic sense”.
