(25 June 2007 – Australia) Bank of Queensland has announced that the Bendigo Bank board had rejected a revised informal proposal for the merger of the two banks, and that all merger talks are now off.Following Bendigo’s rejection in April of BOQ’s formal merger proposal, BOQ submitted a revised proposal, which included an all cash option as an alternative to shares in the merged entity.
BOQ said it would no longer seek a merger of the two banks and would continue to grow organically and make strategic acquisitions where opportunities occurred.
BOQ chairman Neil Roberts said the bank was disappointed that merger talks had come to an end and reiterated BOQ’s view that the merger made a lot of sense.
“Our proposal in March followed two years of informal discussions between the two banks,” he said.
“BOQ will now focus on other strategic initiatives to grow the bank, in addition to its strong organic growth strategy,” Roberts said.