by Kris Sayce on November 14, 2008
During the last few months we’ve shamelessly written that we believe the market has bottomed out. But just like the patient who is on life support, it is too early to tell whether it really will improve from here or whether it will have another cardiac arrest.
The only sector of the market we have been cautious on is financials. The banks especially. But now we are tempted to start whistling a different tune.
It’s risky because the Australian banks are not out of the woods yet. In fact some of them are only just starting to admit they have been hiding in the woods. Commonwealth Bank [ASX: CBA] springs to mind.
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by Kris Sayce on August 18, 2008
Another Australian bank is at it again, this time it is a report that the Commonwealth Bank of Australia [ASX:CBA] may look to buy Perth based BankWest [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24197033-601,00.html] which is currently owned by UK bank HBOS [LON:HBOS]. There has been plenty of talk in recent months that HBOS would be keen to offload the bank to raise capital due to its exposure to the falling housing market in the UK.
This is the latest in a spate of takeovers initiated by Australian banks, yet it is only the Westpac/St George deal that appears to have a better than 50/50 chance of succeeding. Only last week the CBA pulled out of talks to buy the Australian investment banking assets of Royal Bank of Scotland’s ABN Amro, and recently the NAB got cold feet and pulled out of buying Citibank’s stockbroking business.
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