Blackstone is pulling off the largest home-loan portfolio deal ever recorded. ANZ Group and National Australia Bank are financing Blackstone’s A$36 billion (roughly US$25 billion) purchase of HSBC’s Australian retail loan portfolio.

The agreement, announced on July 31, 2026, covers HSBC’s Australian residential mortgages and personal loans accumulated over more than 35 years of retail banking operations in the country. HSBC isn’t leaving Australia entirely. It’s keeping its corporate and institutional banking business intact. Pepper Money, an Australian non-bank lender, will handle the day-to-day servicing of the acquired loan portfolio. The loans themselves will feed into several of Blackstone’s investment strategies, spanning its Credit & Insurance, Tactical Opportunities, and Real Estate Debt Strategies arms.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory approval.

Before Blackstone emerged as the buyer, several other heavyweights circled the portfolio. KKR, Apollo, and Cerberus all showed interest at various stages. Broader discussions with NAB and Macquarie about a potential direct acquisition reportedly didn’t go anywhere.

HSBC has been on a multi-year global simplification campaign, trimming operations in markets where its retail banking presence doesn’t generate the kind of returns that justify the complexity. Australia’s retail lending market is fiercely competitive, dominated by the Big Four banks (Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ, and NAB). The Australian retail exit fits into that playbook: keep the lucrative institutional business, shed the capital-intensive consumer lending.