Adelaide bank shareholders overwhelmingly voted for the Bendigo merger, with 98 per cent of ordinary shares voted in favour. Not that many Adelaide shareholders turned up for the wake.
According to the bank's hometown newspaper,
The Advertiser, all of seven shareholders showed up at the special general meeting that drew the curtain on an institution founded 107 years ago.
The new entity will be known as Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited and headquartered in Bendigo. Many business operations will remain in Adelaide and the latter's managing director, Jamie McPhee, will take the post of chief operating officer of the new entity, pending the retirement of Bendigo's CEO Rob Hunt in two years.
Final approval is required from the Federal Court of Australia, and subject to this, it is expected the merger will be implemented on 30 November. The new Bendigo Bank shares will begin trading on the ASX on 21 November, on a deferred settlement basis.
Adelaide management yesterday reiterated the forecast annual savings on non-interest expenses of Adelaide of approximately $60 million to $65 million. Eighty per cent of those pre-tax cost savings are expected to be realised in the second full year of operation.
This savings estimate, however, ignores "one-off merger and integration costs" which are forecast in a range of between $50 million to $60 million.
The merged bank will adopt a policy of paying approximately 70 per cent of cash earnings as fully franked dividends.
The merged entity will have total assets of around $50 billion, with net assets of $2.7 billion and be Australia's seventh largest lender by market value.