National Australia Bank Makes $12 Billion Bid for AXA Unit HONG KONG - National Australia Bank trumped a rival offer for the Asia-Pacific assets of the French insurance giant AXA on Thursday with a surprise $12 billion bid that highlighted the eagerness of financial institutions to expand in this fast-growing region. N.A.B., one of the largest Australian banks, has the backing of the target company: AXA Asia Pacific, which groups AXA's life insurance and wealth management businesses in the region, is recommending the offer to shareholders. AXA Asia Pacific has rejected a competing bid made last month - and earlier this week raised to $11.7 billion - by the Australian asset management company AMP, in cooperation with AXA. AXA, based in Paris, owns 53 percent of AXA Asia Pacific and has long wanted to gain full control of the unit. The complex, multistage rival proposals both foresee AXA's selling its stake but later buying back the Asian businesses in places like Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia, where wealth - and the business of advising increasingly affluent populations - is growing faster than in any other region. AXA Asia Pacific's businesses in Australia and New Zealand, by contrast, would remain with the successful bidder. Both AMP and N.A.B. are eager to grow in their core Australian and New Zealand markets, which are expected to expand as aging populations and changing regulations lead to a greater need for retirement savings. N.A.B."s offer Thursday values the Australian and New Zealand operations at 4.6 billion Australian dollars, or $4.1 billion. AMP's cash-and-share bid values them at 4.4 billion dollars. Whether N.A.B."s surprise offer Thursday is successful now effectively depends on whether AXA agrees to be the buyout partner for N.A.B., rather than AMP. AMP and AXA have an exclusivity arrangement until Feb. 6, and both said they were considering their positions. In the end, though, analysts said N.A.B. was likely to emerge victorious from the contest. "It looks like this is probably the killer blow," said Arjan van Veen, an analyst at Credit Suisse in Sydney. "AMP called its raised bid the "best and final" offer, and they are not prepared to engage in a bidding war by raising their offer again." For the parent AXA, either transaction would be a relatively cheap way to expand in Asia. "What's driving the current spate of mergers and acquisitions in the region is the price differential between European and Asian markets," Mr. van Veen said. "Sellers like AXA, or ING, can get attractive prices for their assets here," he continued. AXA stands to get an attractive price for its Australia and New Zealand businesses that would effectively fund most of the price for the Asian assets. Its net outlay gaining control of the Asia businesses is very low.