DBS's ANZ deal puts ABN Amro hopes in doubt

With its purchase of ANZ’s Asian retail and wealth management business, Singapore’s DBS looks to have consolidated its position among the regional heavyweights of wealth management.

But it may simultaneously have ruled itself out of the bidding for ABN Amro’s Asian private banking arm, which has reportedly hired Lazard to advise on its sale.

It’s tricky enough to acquire and assimilate one new business taking on two at once would be “too much work and too much risk”, said a source close to ABN Amro.

DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta indicated that the bank was not done with acquisitions, during a press...