ACCC shoots down NAB bid for AXA

At the same time, it said AMP's rival, lower-value proposal wouldn't dampen competition. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said its main bone of contention for a NAB merger would be that retail investors would have substantially fewer platforms to access products, something that wouldn't happen under an AMP merger. The ACCC didn't have any competition concerns about superannuation, insurance and banking markets.

"Allowing NAB and AXA to merge would significantly diminish the incentives to compete for retail investment platforms used by investors that have complex financial needs," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said in a statement. "At the heart of the ACCC's decisions are concerns about innovation, and as a consequence future rigorous and effective competition between retail investment platforms."

Last December, NAB offered AXA AP investors either A$6.43 per share in cash, or $1.59 and 0.1745 of a NAB share per AXA AP share, trumping AMP's bid at A$6.22 a share. Under both deals, AXA SA, the French parent which owns 54% of the Asia Pacific business, would then buy back AXA AP's Asian business.

AXA AP's shares last traded at A$6.34 on the ASX.