The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price is pushing higher this morning.
At the time of writing, the banking giant's shares are up 1.8% to $22.23.
This compares favourably to the rest of the big four banks and the ASX 200 index with its 0.6% gain.
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What is driving the ANZ share price higher?
The catalyst for the rise in the ANZ share price today could be speculation that it is on the verge of making a major acquisition.
According to the AFR, the bank is running the rule over accounting software company MYOB, which is used by over 1 million small businesses in Australia.
While there has been speculation floating around for a little while that ANZ could be interested in snapping up MYOB, the rumours have grown louder this week.
This follows reports that ANZ has brought in Macquarie Capital and UBS for advice. The two investment banks are understood to be working on MYOB's books and modelling what impact it could have on the bank's customer base.
But a deal for MYOB would not be cheap. Private equity firm KKR bought the accounting software company for $2.4 billion in 2019.
Why MYOB?
ANZ is understood to see the acquisition of MYOB as a way to create a one-stop shop for small business banking. By adding the accounting platform to its offering, ANZ could potentially allow customers to manage their financials and accounting in one place.
This could potentially have ramifications for Xero Limited (ASX: XRO), which has 1.34 million subscribers in Australia and 512,000 subscribers in New Zealand. But as things stand, ANZ has not commented on the matter and this potential transaction remains speculation.
Time will tell if a deal is made and a shake-up of the small business landscape happens.
