Letter to AFR re Colonial/CFS Purchase Price

Dear Sir

I refer to an article in this morning’s edition that commented on the purchase price paid by the Commonwealth Bank for CFS (page 29) and would like to clarify the information contained in the article.

The Commonwealth Bank did not purchase CFS for $9 billion as reported. CFS was only a part of the Colonial Limited business that the Bank purchased. The Colonial Group included a banking operation, life insurance and funds management business (including CFS), general insurance businesses and a range of offshore financial service companies.

The Bank has stated on numerous occasions that the value ascribed to the Colonial wealth management businesses was $4.472 billion and the remaining $4.65 billion represented the rest of the Colonial entities, the principal one being the Colonial State Bank.

I would appreciate the correct information being reported to your readers.

Yours sincerely

Bryan Fitzgerald

General Manager, Media