Investors cash in as bush banks take off

Regional banks could not get a guernsey last year while the big four were chalking up stunning average 24 per cent returns for their shareholders. Now the likes of Adelaide Bank and Queensland’s Suncorp Metway are on the move, and Bendigo Bank is knocking on a 52-week high of $6.15.

The Victorian Bank Bendigo is a 50-50 partner with the Elders unit of Futuris in Elders Rural Services, which got its full banking licence last July. When ERS announced its interim figures, some analysts concentrated on the hole rather than the doughnut.

The $4.3 million net profit was down on the comparable period the previous year and below expectations. However, the doughnut was a huge 160 per cent growth in deposits to $864 million.

The bank lent out nearly $100 million during the first half. The loan book swelled to $838 million and is expected to top $1 billion this year.

The Bendigo-Elders duo seems to be striking a chord in the bush, where the cockies have long complained that the big banks do not care about them — shades of the One Nation political phenomena perhaps?