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BOQ offloads St Andrew’s at last

Bank of Queensland has finally managed to sell St Andrew’s Insurance, announcing that it will sell the business to Farmcove Investment Holdings.

St Andrew’s has been on the block for years. It was to be sold to Freedom Insurance Group but that deal was abandoned at the end of 2018 when Freedom’s business started to fall apart.

The Farmcove deal is worth A$23 million and the transaction will result in an after-tax loss for BOQ of around $27 to $30 million.

Farmcove is a “private investment vehicle” controlled by Matt Lancaster, who spent 18 years at Macquarie Capital before launching his own business this year.

Under the terms of the deal, BOQ will provide a capped indemnity to Farmcove for “certain pre-completion matters”.

An indication of how keen BOQ was to get rid of the business is that it will fund Farmcove’s acquisition with vendor finance.

BOQ chief executive George Frazis said the buyer will meet all ongoing obligations to St Andrew’s customers.

 

 

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