Iht:
Bendigo Bank, founded during Australia’s gold rush in the 1850s, rejected Bank of Queensland’s 2.7 billion Australian dollar, or $2.3 billion, takeover offer after forecasting an increase in full-year earnings.
The bid is neither “certain nor compelling,” Bendigo’s chairman, Robert Johanson, said in a statement.
Bendigo, Coles Group and Rinker Group are among Australian companies that have rejected takeover offers in a market where proposed acquisitions have tripled since the start of the year. Johanson said profit growth will accelerate to 12 percent this year as the bank opens branches in small towns that bigger rivals have quit.
“There may be capacity for Bank of Queensland to increase its offer,” said Adrian Mulcahy, a fund manager at Perennial Investment Partners in Melbourne. “For a lot of these companies once they are in play, they stay in play until something happens.”
Bank of Queensland’s chief executive officer, David Liddy, has said a combined group, with more than 1.5 million customers, would be better able to compete with Australia’s four largest banks, led by National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.Commonwealth Bank said in February that first-half profit rose 10 percent to a record 2.19 billion dollars. Australia’s four biggest lenders have all reported record earnings in the past six months, benefiting from an economy in its 16th consecutive year of growth and unemployment at a three-decade low.
Liddy is expanding his bank’s manager-owned franchise model while Bendigo is growing by opening branches in rural regions where larger competitors have closed outlets.
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