(19 March 2007 – Australia) Bank of Queensland is seeking a merger with Bendigo Bank.BOQ managing director David Liddy said the deal, which would see 60 percent of the combined entity owned by BOQ shareholders, was based on keeping both businesses running under their current structures.
“No Community Bank branches or Owner Managed branches will be closed, in fact we will continue to open branches,” he said.
BOQ said the benefits of such a merger would be the combined scale, efficiencies, some A$70 million in cost synergies, and access to the other’s branch network which would total more than 575 branches if the deal goes through.
Liddy said the business model would try to preserve the unique character and customer focus of the current Bendigo and BOQ branch networks and business units, which include business banking, equipment finance and wealth management.
“We intend to support and grow the current brands across both companies and provide significant investment in new products and IT to provide the back office support for these two business models to thrive side by side,” he said.
For its part, Bendigo said it was currently considering whether the merger proposal was in the best interests of shareholders and would make a recommendation as soon as practicable.