The National Australia Bank and AXA Asia Pacific Holdings have agreed to extend the period for NAB to address merger concerns raised by the ACCC to August 31.
The overall deadline for the acquisition of AXA APH by the NAB to become effective has been pushed back until the end of January of next year in order to allow time for the scheme process and other requirements to be satisfied.
As part of this, both parties have agreed that the AXA Directors may declare a dividend of up to 9.25 cents per share for the six months leading up to the end of the most recent financial year.
A statement released by the NAB has declared that the dividend will not have any impact on the net assets of AXA APH acquired by the bank at the completion of the proposed transaction.
This update comes following the April blocking of the merger proposal by the ACCC in favour of of a bid by AMP Ltd.
After months of investigation, the ACCC had found that in the interests of competitioin and innovation an AMP/AXA merger would be a better result for consumers.
The NAB rejected the ACCC’s conclusion that the merger would result in a lessening of competition, and is continuing to explore options to placate the ACCC in a viable manner.
