AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Business Update

AXA Asia Pacific (AXA) have issued a strong business update, trumpeting that sales growth was up 57 percent in the fist quarter. The company is currently undergoing a $13 billion takeover battle between two bidders: National Australia Bank and AMP.

However, NAB's offer has been blocked by ASIC on Monday night, while clearing AMP's offer. NAB has offered $6.43 a share in cash or a combination of $1.59 in cash and 0.1745 NAB shares for each APH share. If NAB and AXA were to merge they would have 21 percent of the retail funds market, while having 15 percent of the wholesale funds market - twice the size of the nearest competitor. In both deals, the winning bidder would acquire AXA Asia Pacific's Australian and New Zealand operations while the French AXA would take the remaining Asian assets.