(4 February 2005 – Australia) ANZ has hosed down speculation that it was considering launching a takeover bid for AMP, rumours that pushed up the latter’s share price by three percent the day before.A bank spokesman said there were no plans to make “dilutive acquisitions” and that the bank took a long term strategic view of its wealth management business.
He said he doubted that purchasing AMP would make sense for any of the banks.
The rumours of ANZ making a play for AMP have done the rounds before despite most analysts believing the financial services company was too expensive for any of the banks.