ASB books a loss on sale of Aegis

Vittoria Shortt

The bank reported a net profit of $599 million for the six months ended December, including a $28 million loss from selling Aegis last year, compared with $630 million in the same six months a year earlier.

ASB said its owner, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, had invested a further $2.5 billion in common equity "in anticipation" of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's additional capital requirements announced late last year.

The RBNZ has given the four major banks, of which ASB is one, seven years from July to lift their minimum common equity to 13.5 percent of risk-weighted assets and total tier 1 capital to 16 percent from the current minimum of 8.5 percent.

In the presentations of its results, CBA said ASB will need an additional $3 billion of tier 1 capital with $2.5 billion of that having to be common equity.