The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price is relatively flat since the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced that ANZ, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and six of their executives have been committed to the Federal Court of Australia for trial on criminal cartel charges.
Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, ANZ and the executives were charged in June 2018 following an ACCC investigation. The parties were charged on alleged cartel arrangements relating to trading in ANZ shares following ANZ’s $2.5 billion institutional share placement completed in August 2015.
The ACCC declared that ANZ could incur a fine of $10 million or three times the total benefits earned from the alleged cartel conduct. However, the ACCC stated, “if the total value of the benefits cannot be determined, 10 per cent of the corporation’s annual turnover connected with Australia.”
The little change in the ANZ share price could be because the result was expected by the market.
In other ANZ news
According to ANZ’s Media Centre webpage, ANZi, ANZ’s corporate venture division, made a strategic investment in Auckland-based fintech Aider on 16 November.
The release mentioned Aider helps small and medium enterprises generate instant data-driven insights into their cash flow, staffing and accounting needs.
ANZi Ventures Managing Director Ron Spector said: “This investment aligns with our focus on building relationships with emerging growth companies that can support our customers. We look forward to continuing to develop our relationship with Aider and hope to offer their innovative solutions to our customers in the near future”.
Are ANZ shares a buy for dividends?
At the time of writing, ANZ trades on a trailing dividend yield of 2.5%. This is multitudes better than the interest you would earn on holding a one-year ANZ term deposit of 0.50% p.a.
For comparative purposes, Australia’s largest bank by market capitalisation, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), has a trailing dividend yield of 3.64%.
Ultimately, I would prefer to buy shares in Challenger Ltd (ASX: CGF) for dividends. At the time of writing, Challenger trades on a trailing dividend yield 5.96%. Check out my analysis of Challenger here.
