By Robb M. Stewart
MELBOURNE, Australia--National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB.AU) has
moved to sell its remaining stake in regional U.S. lender Great
Western Bancorp Inc. (GWB) as it refocuses on its core Australian
and New Zealand franchises.
NAB said Tuesday it plans to offload about 12.7 million Great
Western shares as part of a secondary stock offering by the U.S.
bank. At the same time, Great Western has agreed to repurchase
about US$60 million of its own shares from NAB.
NAB also will grant the underwriters of the offering a 30-day
option to buy up to a further 1.3 million Great Western shares.
The Melbourne-based bank, which is also seeking to exit its U.K.
banking business before the end of the year, sold a 31.8% interest
in Great Western last year at US$18 a share in an initial public
offering that raised US$331 million. In May, it moved to raise as
much as US$495 million selling shares at US$21.50 each, to reduce
its stake to 28.5%.
NAB said with the latest steps it expects to fully divest
ownership of Great Western.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
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