CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Australian Competition Tribunal authorized Australia
and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd's (AN3PG.AX, ANZ.AX) proposed A$4.9 billion
acquisition of Suncorp's banking arm.

The Tribunal's decision sets aside the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission or ACCC's earlier decision not to grant authorisation for the
proposed acquisition.
The Tribunal is the review body for authorisation decisions made by the ACCC.

Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group welcomed the Australian
Competition Tribunal's decision to authorize the proposed acquisition of Suncorp
Bank.

ANZ entered an agreement to purchase Suncorp Bank in July 2022.

In December 2022, the ACCC received an application for merger authorization from
ANZ in relation to its proposal to acquire Suncorp Bank.

In August 2023 the ACCC said it would not authorize the proposed acquisition,
because it was not satisfied the transaction would not result in a substantial
lessening of competition in the supply of home loans nationally, small to medium
enterprise banking in Queensland, and agribusiness banking in Queensland, and
that the claimed public benefits did not outweigh the likely public detriment.

Based on its review of the material before the ACCC, and some limited new
information, the Tribunal has concluded that it is satisfied that the
transaction would not result in a substantial lessening of competition in any
relevant market, the ACCC said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ACCC noted that the Tribunal found many of the public benefits claimed by
ANZ and Suncorp were either not public benefits or were not specific to the
proposed acquisition. However, the Tribunal found that any detriments from the
acquisition were uncertain and unlikely to outweigh the integration benefits.



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