Orion lashes cheap sale of St George

Orion Asset Management, which is the eighth largest shareholder in St George Bank, yesterday criticised the proposed takeover of the bank by Westpac, which has the tentative support of directors.

Orion investment manager Dushko Bajic told The Australian: "The offer stinks. It takes opportunism to a new level and, as a shareholder in St George, I feel outraged at what is going on."

Bajic said: "It is the worst time to give the company away."

He told the newspaper that "I find it frightening that the board has not identified its own valuation of St George as a stand-alone entity. How can you be sure of the value of Westpac's scrip and, even more outlandishly, the value of a merged St George/Westpac scrip, when you haven't established your own valuation of your own stock?

"And by the way, it's not good enough to draft in an independent expert after the event—you've already set the goalposts," he said.