Macquarie Group and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group are said to beamong firms planning bids for about $2 billion in loans being sold by Investec. Non-bank lender Pepper Australia, buyout firm Archer Capital and regional lenders Bank of Queensland and Bendigo & Adelaide Bank are also among suitors studying the loan portfolio. National Australia Bank also plans to bid. Investec, which owns a bank and money manager in South Africa and the UK, cut 80 jobs and closed or scaled back its Australian securities, equity capital markets and structured financial products businesses in 2013. In November, it appointed Ernst & Young, King & Wood Mallesons and Greenhill & Co. to review the potential sale of some Australian units. It said in November it will provide an update by the end of March on the possible sale or joint venture of its Australian asset finance and leasing business and professional finance division, which lends to doctors, dentists and lawyers. Investec also said it was considering the sale of its London-based mortgage business after a recovery in the British home-loan market. It sold Investec Trust to the UK’s Salamanca Group for an undisclosed sum. The unit administered 600 trusts with assets of more than £4.5 billion.
