No takeovers required to keep growing, St George chairman says
(8 June 2004 – Australia) Outgoing St George chairman Frank Conroy has said the bank is not targeting any of its smaller rivals to grow the business as it has enormous growth potential and a momentum of its own.
Speaking on the Nine network’s Business Sunday program, Conroy, who is leaving the bank at the end of the year, said St George was not eyeing the likes of BankWest or Bendigo as the bank strongly believed there was an "enormous amount of advantage within [its] four walls".
He said there was a great opportunity for the bank to sell more product to its existing customers.
"Having said that, we still look at those various opportunities that may arise in the future because things can literally change overnight. As we see the market at the moment, we don’t see any reason why we, St George, should necessarily have to go and acquire any other institution to grow," Conroy said.
As for National Australia Bank’s decision to divest its stake in St George, Conroy agreed that it had removed the most immediate threat to being taken over.
"We weren't sure what National Australia Bank's ultimate aspirations were going to be. They held that shareholding for quite some time and when they eventually decided to divest of those shares, in some sense we were relieved of course," he said.
"We’d prefer to have a much more open and spread shareholding, and, in fact, it did actually provide quite some good liquidity to the market, allowed other shareholders, including some foreign shareholders, to come in where they haven’t had the opportunity in the past."
Conroy went on to say that he had sympathised with former NAB boss Frank Cicutto, who resigned his position in the wake of the bank’s $360 million FX trading losses.
"I think the actual incident was quite minor in the perspective of the total organisation, its profits, and its size and so on. I think that the market was perceiving that it was just one of the many issues that the National had faced over many years," he said.
"Any organisation can face a major fraud, and I’ve been certainly involved in other organisations where they’ve come up and it does give you quite a start because you think your processes are very tight and disciplined and then suddenly there’s something – there’s hole in them and so you've got to be very, very careful."
He said there was a great opportunity for the bank to sell more product to its existing customers.
"Having said that, we still look at those various opportunities that may arise in the future because things can literally change overnight. As we see the market at the moment, we don’t see any reason why we, St George, should necessarily have to go and acquire any other institution to grow," Conroy said.
As for National Australia Bank’s decision to divest its stake in St George, Conroy agreed that it had removed the most immediate threat to being taken over.
"We weren't sure what National Australia Bank's ultimate aspirations were going to be. They held that shareholding for quite some time and when they eventually decided to divest of those shares, in some sense we were relieved of course," he said.
"We’d prefer to have a much more open and spread shareholding, and, in fact, it did actually provide quite some good liquidity to the market, allowed other shareholders, including some foreign shareholders, to come in where they haven’t had the opportunity in the past."
Conroy went on to say that he had sympathised with former NAB boss Frank Cicutto, who resigned his position in the wake of the bank’s $360 million FX trading losses.
"I think the actual incident was quite minor in the perspective of the total organisation, its profits, and its size and so on. I think that the market was perceiving that it was just one of the many issues that the National had faced over many years," he said.
"Any organisation can face a major fraud, and I’ve been certainly involved in other organisations where they’ve come up and it does give you quite a start because you think your processes are very tight and disciplined and then suddenly there’s something – there’s hole in them and so you've got to be very, very careful."
Subscribe