Transcription of Finance News Network interview with Bank of Queensland Limited (ASX:BOQ) Managing Director & CEO, John SuttonCarolyn Herbert: Hello I’m Carolyn Herbert for the Finance News Network. Joining me from Bank of Queensland Limited
(ASX:BOQ) is Managing Director and CEO, John Sutton. John, welcome to FNN.
John Sutton: Thank you very much, Carolyn. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Carolyn Herbert: Now can you start by giving us an introduction to Bank of Queensland?
John Sutton: Bank of Queensland is one of Australia’s oldest financial institutions. It’s been around for 145 years. We run a number of specialty niche businesses in our commercial lending. We also own the Virgin Money brand for mortgages. We’ve also got the BOQ brand, which has been around serving our customers for many, many years.
Carolyn Herbert: Now to your FY16 results, what were the highlights?
John Sutton: The highlight for me was the fourth consecutive year of an increase in our cash profit. We’re up to $360 million – up $3 million from the previous year. Also, our full year dividend is 76 cents.
Carolyn Herbert: And what was the dividend and total dividend for the half?
John Sutton: The total dividend for the second half was 38 cents. Fully-year dividend, for the whole year, was 76 cents – up 3 percent.
Carolyn Herbert: And John, what contributed to these results?
John Sutton: We’ve had some great success in our strategy, particularly in our niche businesses. One I’d like to call out is BOQ Specialist, which looks after the needs of doctors and dentists. That’s grown – it’s added $1.5 billion to the mortgage portfolio. In the commercial side of the lending, to doctors and dentists – that’s grown at a healthy 13 percent. Also, our very exciting news is the first ever release of our Virgin Money mortgage. Over the last few weeks, we’ve had a great uptake. We’ve had over $100 million worth of applications for the new product.
Carolyn Herbert: And John, now to BOQ’s strategy – it’s really aimed at changing the relationship the bank has with its customers. How’s that progressing for you?
John Sutton: That’s correct. We don’t want to be a ‘mini-me’ of the Big Four. We’re a bank that is materially different. We actually concentrate on serving niche commercial customers and their needs. That’s well supported by BOQ Finance (our equipment leasing company), what we’re doing with Virgin Money (on the retail side), and, also, what we’re doing with BOQ. We don’t want to be all things to all people. But we certainly do give a much higher customer service. It’s through our unique offering, through our own manager network (which is a franchise network), a lot of our bank managers and branch managers, through the Owner-Managed Branch (OMB) network have been there for 10 years or more. Great longevity – great for customer relationships.
Carolyn Herbert: Finally, John – what’s your guidance for FY17, and your focus for the next 12 months?
John Sutton: We don’t provide specific guidance. But our focus is to continue to execute on our strategies. And you’ll continue to see growth in the Virgin brand. You’ll continue to see growth in our specialist niche commercial offerings – particularly in BOQ Specialist. And we’ll continue to grow our customer numbers. It’s an exciting period of time to be here at BOQ.
Carolyn Herbert: John Sutton, thanks for the update on BOQ.
John Sutton: Thank you for having us. It’s a real pleasure.
Ends
