The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has sold its New Zealand asset finance business UDC Finance to Chinese conglomerate HNA Group for $NZ660 million ($628 million).

Although the sale is relatively small for a huge firm like ANZ, this is a second sale out in almost single week as the banking giant looks to streamline its global business. Last week, the Melbourne-based firm sold its 20 percent stake in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank to two local Chinese companies.

Like Us on Facebook

The CEO of ANZ in New Zealand, David Hisco, said the sale of UDC "is consistent with our strategy to simplify the bank and is a good outcome for customers and staff."  

ANZ said that the entire transaction procedure would be completed in the second half of the current financial year.

The two back-to-back deals in a single week represented the Australian firm's strategic plan to offload its $4.1 billion portfolio of stakes across major Asian banks. The firm has been continuously trying to streamline its global operation under the current CEO Shayne Elliott.

As for the HNA Group, the UDC deal marked its second big investment with an Australian firm, after acquiring considerable stake in Virgin Australia last year. The Chinese conglomerate was on a major acquisition drive during the last financial year, with a reported spending of $46.3 billion to buy several reputed companies across the globe.

HNA has business inertests across the key sectors including financial services, logistics, tourism, real estate, and insurance.

Meanwhile, reports in Austrian media claimed that ANZ is looking to offload its stake in other Asian banks like Bank of Tianjin, PT Bank Pan Indonesia, and Malaysia's AMBank.  

TagsANZ, ANZ Bank, HNA Group, ANZ AND HNA, Chinese conglomerate