(17 December 2025 – Australia) BoQ has fielded bids for its A$3.8 billion asset finance loan book with the sale process to advance into 2026.
Bids are expected to be made by Blackstone. Apollo Global Management and Cerberus Capital Management after the group declared in August it would seek to free-up capital and enhance sub-optimal return on equity (ROE) by spinning off a component of its equipment finance portfolio.
Bank of America is providing the funding on the sale of the assets BoQ acquired from Investec almost a decade ago and renamed to the BoQ Specialist Unit that added A$2.4bn of loans and A$2.7bn of deposits to its portfolio.
A successful transaction would result in the underlying assets, net interest income and exposure to any credit losses being economically transferred to a capital partner.
“We are reimagining how we are doing banking and pursuing alternative opportunities to the traditional model where banks book everything on their balance sheet” BoQ CEO Patrick Allaway commented in an interview.
Allaway is seeking to simplify the business, an approach regional banks have been under pressure to do to appease the regulator.
“It recognises that our current returns are not sustainable and will be a good way to grow return on equity. By taking the assets off our balance sheet, we can release capital and, on a risk-adjusted basis, we will be better off and able to scale faster.”