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Fox follows the money, retains Bank investment

Lindsay Fox reaffirms investment in the banking sector, electing to retain stake in the Bank of Queensland

Trucking titan Lindsay Fox has reaffirmed his investment in the banking sector, electing to retain a stake in the Bank of Queensland.

Linfox launched an extensive review of its 5.7 percent stake in the bank, announcing as part of the company’s half-year results it will retain the investment.

“We want to emphasise our support for management and the bank’s Project Pathways initiative at a time of global uncertainty and opportunity,” says Linfox Share Investment No. 2 Chairman Peter Fox.

“We believe this is the best strategy for the bank to continue its growth trajectory and we want the Fox family to continue to play a role in the bank’s ownership.”

Bank of Queensland Managing Director David Liddy welcomes the show of support.

“The Fox family’s continued support is welcomed in a market searching for greater stability,” he says.

Liddy says the bank expects its normalised cash net profit after tax to be at least 25 percent higher for the six months ending February 28 compared with the prior corresponding period.

“Growth in cash profit after tax has been underpinned by good cost discipline, strong asset quality and targeted growth, a very pleasing performance given the challenging economic environment,” he says.

“As we have previously advised the market, we expect to report lower net interest margins in our first-half results compared to the previous half, largely due to our focus on ‘sticky’ retail term deposits and pricing pressures with an expectation of an improvement in the second half of the year driven by more recent favourable asset and liability re-pricing strategies deployed by BoQ.”

He says the Project Pathways initiative, which is seeking to further enhance its strength through strategic partnerships, complementary mergers, portfolio optimisation and efficiency initiatives is progressing well.

More at ATN sister publication Queensland Business Reviewwww.qbr.com.au.

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