BOQ Completes Purchase of St Andrew’s Insurance
Thursday, 01/07/2010
BOQ today completed the purchase of St Andrew’s Insurance (Australia) Pty Ltd and St Andrew’s Life Insurance Pty Ltd. The purchase price was $45 million, subject to post-completion adjustments.
BOQ Managing Director David Liddy said the purchase was a ‘capital-lite’ acquisition, requiring capital equivalent to less than half a year of organic growth.
“As flagged in March, we expect the purchase to be earnings per share (EPS) accretive immediately; however there will be no material impact on EPS in the current financial year,” said Mr Liddy.
BOQ will operate the St Andrew’s business as a stand-alone entity and will maintain a St Andrew’s Insurance Perth-based headquarters as well as its existing presence around the country.
“I’m delighted to announce that the dedicated and passionate St Andrew’s Executive team, who have very ambitious growth plans for the St Andrew’s business, have moved across to the BOQ group,” said Mr Liddy.
“St Andrew’s Insurance Chief Executive Officer Renato Mazza will join the BOQ Group Executive team, but will operate the business independently of the broader Bank.
“This is a great purchase for BOQ and is in keeping with growth strategy, including income diversification through businesses with complementary products to our core mortgage distribution.”
Mr Mazza said he was looking forward to focusing on growing the business in the short to medium term.
“This is a great day for St Andrew’s; my team and I have big growth aspirations for the business over the next few years.
“Operating as an independent entity, with the support of BOQ, we are in a very strong position to re-invigorate and re-focus the business.”
BOQ also announced earlier today the successful completion of the purchase of CIT Group (Australia) Limited and CIT Group (New Zealand) Limited.
