office in Sydney, with state operations in each capital city. The first regional branch presence was established in Toowoomba in 1958 under the management of Keith Jack who would later become the Managing Director in 1980. Further branch expansion quickly followed in all states and by the mid-1970s AGC operated more than 100 branch offices with over 3,000 staff. With advancing technology in the mid-1980s most suburban and regional branches were closed and the business operations were again centralised in large state operations, servicing clients statewide by local resident sales staff or electronically from state centres. Offshore Expansion AGC's first offshore operation was New Zealand which operated relatively autonomously as AGC (New Zealand) Ltd from 1938. Papua New Guinea was established in 1958. The 1960s saw AGC move into South East Asia with Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei all opened as joint ventures with Standard Chartered Bank of England. By the mid-1980s AGC had extended its overseas presence, generally with a local joint partner, into countries such as Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Portugal and a joint office with Westpac in London. Overall, by 1988 the very successful overseas operations involved 12 countries and employed more than 1,000 staff. Although most overseas businesses were very profitable, all were progressively sold in the early-1990s as part of the business rationalisation after the financial crisis of the late-1980s. 1970s and 1980s Through the 1970s AGC expanded and increased profits. It avoided many of the disasters that befell others in that time, though it did indulge in the diversification strategies that were in vogue, ending up for a time with a majority interest in Budget Rent a Car and in property developer Mirvac, plus minority interests in all sorts of things from entertainment business ("AGC Paradine" in partnership with well-known entertainment personality David Frost), winemaking, brickworks to caravans. On the finance related side AGC continued to expand overseas, and in Australia acquired Bill Acceptance Corporation (BAC) in 1977 (which it ran as an independent business). In the early-1980s AGC also acquired a number of competitor retail financier companies, notably General Credits, Standard Chartered Finance Australia, Associated Midland and Amev-UDC. From the late-1970s until 1988 AGC also operated a "big ticket" corporate financing business as AGC Corporate Finance, providing finance facilities for such purposes as commercial aircraft, public company preference shares and mining equipment. This operation was moved to Westpac Corporate Finance control