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Australia's Bank of Queensland to buy ME Bank for AUD 1.33 bln

Monday 22 February 2021 10:35 CET | News

Australia-based Bank of Queensland (BoQ) has announced it will buy ME Bank, a digital lender owned by 26 industry pension funds, for AUD 1.33 billion.

The deal will double the size of the regional bank’s retail arm, taking deposits to more than AUD 56 billion, and boost the division’s contribution to earnings to more than 50% from 36%. BoQ will fund the deal through an AUD 1.35 billion equity raise at AUD 7.35 a share.

Even with the deal, BoQ will still lag far behind the Big Four banks, which control about three-quarters of the lending market and have glided through the pandemic better than some of their international peers.

The smallest of the four, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, has over AUD 320 billion in deposits according to December 2020 data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

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Keywords: Bank of Queensland, ME Bank, digital lender, equity raise, Big Four, banking, boq, Australia
Categories: Banking & Fintech
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Countries: Australia
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