Given the perilous state of the US financial system, no doubt...

Given the perilous state of the US financial system, no doubt Mike Hurst will be able to tell them a thing or two.

LOL.

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Article below

Source: The Age:

Bendigo Bank hits big time with New York trip Eric Johnston
September 3, 2010

COUNTING a branch network that stretches from Tambellup in Western Australia to Tumbarumba in southern New South Wales, senior executives of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank are planning to spruik its grassroots to some of Wall Street's biggest investors next week.

Chief executive Mike Hirst will head off on Monday for a global investor roadshow that takes in big mutual funds in New York.

He will address major fund managers and investors at Merrill Lynch's annual conference for Australian companies. This is the first time the bank has spoken at the event.

Today, some 40 per cent of Bendigo's shareholders are classed as institutional investors. This is up substantially from a little over three years ago when less than 10 per cent of investors were from the big end of town.

About 20 per cent of Bendigo's shareholders are large offshore funds looking for exposure to the Australian retail banking market. Of this, about 10 per cent are based in North America, with the balance spread across Asia and Europe.

This includes the 3.5 per cent holding by France's BRED Banque Populaire. The French bank, which has been expanding into Asia in search of growth outside its home market, also ranks as the biggest shareholder in Bank of Queensland, with a 12.6 per cent stake.

Mr Hirst jets off amid reports that Bank of Queensland has sought to revive merger discussions. Unsourced reports yesterday said BOQ chairman Neil Summerson had floated a merger proposal at a recent meeting with Bendigo chairman Robert Johanson

Neither Bendigo nor BOQ would comment on the report.

Senior Bendigo insiders said yesterday they were not aware of a merger approach.

''There would be only one bank left if our chairman merged with every other chairman he had lunch with,'' said a Bendigo insider.

The interest in Bendigo among large investors now puts it in line with its bigger rivals. Commonwealth Bank, which was heavily marketed to so-called mum and dad shareholders when the federal government sold it in two tranches last decade, has an institutional shareholder base of a little over 45 per cent.

Others such as ANZ have an institutional base of 55 per cent.

Much of the new institutional money arrived in last year's $300 million capital raising, when more than half the shares were sold to institutional investors.

The merger with Adelaide Bank in 2007 has increased its stockmarket capitalisation, attracting greater interest from index funds.
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I await replies from the usual suspects.