re: Ann: Appendix 4D and Half Year Financial ... Aren't these...

re: Ann: Appendix 4D and Half Year Financial ... Aren't these guys warehouse lender to AXQ?


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25183579-643,00.html


Goodbye, good luck: Societe General closes in Australia
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Andrew Main | March 14, 2009

Article from: The Australian
MAJOR French bank Societe Generale will close its corporate lending operations in Australia.

This will leave its existing corporate clientele -- borrowers of around $7.8 billion -- to fend for themselves.

SocGen, which has been operating in Australia on and off for more than 25 years, has told clients who have existing lending facilities that they will not be renewed when the time comes to roll them over, and that they should seek refinancing elsewhere.

No one at SocGen was prepared to comment, either in Sydney or in the Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong.

The news of SocGen's looming wind-down is not a bolt from the blue; on March 2, the bank's Sydney office announced it was cutting local staff numbers, which had been at 280, by about 30 per cent.

While it has not been officially confirmed, the SocGen decision is the first in what is likely to be a series of exits from Australia by foreign banks.

Australia's Big Four banks are poised to benefit from the retreat. The federal Government's newly created "Rudd Bank", to be headed by senior NAB executive Ahmed Fahour, was specifically devised to fill in any lending gaps left by such departures.

The Australian Business Investment Partnership, or ABIP as it is officially called, will start with a $2 billion contribution from the federal Government and $500 million each from Australia's Big Four banks, for a total of $4 billion, but with the ability to borrow a further $26billion under a commonwealth guarantee.

The Government's particular concern in setting up the ABIP was real estate financing, where many foreign banks have been active, although SocGen has focused more on resource financing.

Foreign banks are reportedly responsible for about $30 billion of the $165 billion of bank debt currently lent out in Australia in the commercial property sector.

Any rush for the exits by foreign financiers, many of whom are facing bigger problems closer to home, threatens to stretch Australia's already creaky credit system and force borrowers to refinance at what could well be higher rates of interest, assuming of course they can refinance at all.

Foreign banks have around 30 per cent of the whole Australian banking system's loan book, or $427 billion out of regulator APRA's reported $1.425 trillion out on loan.

Although SocGen's loan book in Australia is not particularly big at $7.8 billion, according to APRA's latest statistics, the bank also holds $16 billion in trading securities, which when added to other assets held here produces a figure of $31.8 billion.

An exit by SocGen would not necessarily force the trading securities to be sold, as they can be held offshore, but The Weekend Australian has been assured that the bank's lending book will nevertheless be wound down as loans come up for roll-over.

Under such a scenario, SocGen could be out completely within two years, but the office could easily be closed down within six months, with the loan wind-down being handled by remote control via Hong Kong.

In recent days, the federal Government has tabled legislation designed to extend ABIP's lending range to other assets besides commercial property.

Earlier this week, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull criticised the plan to widen the scheme, saying it would make it easier for foreign banks and other lenders to exit the Australian market.