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SYDNEY: Australia's Commonwealth Bank said Wednesday it was in discussions to buy Dutch bank ABN Amro's assets in Australia and New Zealand.
The move comes after the rival National Australia Bank announced late Tuesday that it was withdrawing from talks about buying the assets without detailing any reasons.
The Commonwealth said ABN Amro's Australia and New Zealand business would complement its existing institutional banking and markets business.
It said it had entered an exclusivity agreement regarding negotiations about the assets with Royal Bank of Scotland, part of a banking consortium that bought ABN Amro for US$112 billion last October.
"The proposal is incomplete, subject to further negotiation and subject to signing a final, binding agreement," the Commonwealth said.
- AFP/yb
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