Partial takeover bar dropped by Bendigo

The directors of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank plan to drop a restriction in the company constitution that presents an impediment to a partial takeover of the bank.

The note of the bank's annual meeting, released yesterday, discloses that the board does not propose to renew the existing restriction, which has the effect of requiring a vote of shareholders before any formal proportional takeover offer can proceed.

The Corporations Law requires a shareholder vote to renew this restriction every three years and this was last done in 2008.

The board wrote in the notice of meeting that the rule was "no longer necessary" and "may impose an unwarranted restriction on the ability of individual shareholders to deal freely with their shares if a partial takeover for the company is made".

Partial takeover offers for deposit-taking institutions are rare, and in the modern era there may never have been any. Takeovers of ADIs are invariably for all the shares and by scheme of arrangement.