Bank of Queensland Limited (BOQ) today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of Members Equity Bank Limited (ACN 070 887 679) (ME Bank) for cash consideration of $1.325bn. The acquisition will be funded by an underwritten capital raising of $1.35bn.
Chairman Patrick Allaway stated, “Today’s announcement is another major step in our strategy to be the leading customer-centric alternative to the big banks. With the addition of the ME Bank business, BOQ now has material scale and a compelling growth platform to support this ambition. The combination of our highly complementary businesses brings together two organisations with a shared purpose and values generating greater value for customers, employees and shareholders. This is underpinned by the successful revitalisation of the bank since early 2020 with the team’s strong execution capabilities being reflected in our earnings progress to the half.”
Managing Director and CEO Mr George Frazis said, “This is a defining acquisition in our ongoing transformation of BOQ, benefitting our shareholders, customers, and people. Critically, ME Bank delivers material scale, broadly doubles our Retail bank, and provides geographic diversification. The ME Bank brand is also a great fit with the BOQ and Virgin Money brands, creating customer-centric alternatives in Australia.
“It is an exciting day to see two strategically and culturally-aligned businesses come together and we look forward to continuing to build ME Bank’s strong brand, accelerate growth and create new opportunities for our people and the Group.
“We are on track with our strategic transformation and we anticipate that the combination of the two businesses will enable us to accelerate our digital strategy towards a cloud based common digital Retail bank technology platform,” Mr Frazis said.
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