$50m BANK GROUP TO SERVE REGION

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32213, 4 February 1970, Page 24

$50m BANK GROUP TO SERVE REGION

CV.Z. Pre..

WELLINGTON, Feb. 3. . A consortium of four ' major international banks in Australia, Canada and the United States has formed a ssom financial i enterprise, Australian Inter- ' national Finance Corpora- I tion, Ltd, to serve Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Basin area. The new company will) have its headquarters in Mel-1 bourne, with branch offices in Sydney and Perth. The consortium was announced by Messrs Charles H. j Rennie, chief general manlager of Australia and New 'Zealand Banking Group, Ltd,

■l. Leonard Walker, president of the Bank of Montreal, George A. Murphy, chairman of Irving Trust Company, of New York, and Emmett G. Solomon, chairman of Crocker - Citizens National Bank of San Francisco. The new organisation will Ibe incorporated in Australia 1 after approval has been ‘given by the appropriate authorities in Australia and i the United States. The decision to found the i new company was in response to the growing importance of the Pacific Basin to world trade, with particular emphasis on the role of Australia and New Zealand, the statement said. The company’s activities would centre in Australia, but it was intended to broaden the scope to encompass New Zealand and the entire Pacific area. Each of the participants would own 25 per cent of Australian International Finance land would be represented on both the board of directors and the management com- ! mittee.

Hooker Record

L. J. Hooker, Ltd, the Sydney-based real estate agency division of the Hooker group said in the six months Ito December 31, the sale of (property on behalf of clients ; | totalled $62.1m, a new record I for the company.—(P.A.)