ST GEORGE Bank national manager of auto finance Neal Steadman has written to all the dealer principals and business managers within its clients base in a move designed to assure its customers that it is ‘business as usual’.

As reported by GoAutoNews Premium last May, Westpac listed automotive finance as one business unit to be sold off as it cleans the decks of businesses that it deems unable to offer suitable returns.

Auto finance has been grouped by Westpac within its wealth sector, including those operating products in superannuation, retirement, investments and general and life insurance.

In its half-year report, Westpac Group’s then-recently appointed CEO Peter King said these were listed as businesses that “don’t have sufficient scale or where the returns are insufficient for the risk”.

Since then the finance media and investment analysts have been speculating on likely suitors which St George obviously sees as being distracting for its dealer customers.

Mr Steadman’s letter reads in part:

Media Speculation 

“You may have seen recent media speculation about the future of our auto finance business.

“Westpac has been open that it is undertaking reviews of a number of its businesses, including auto finance.

“While this is underway, we continue to operate as usual, serving our current customers and driving new business while completing some major projects to improve our technology and the dealer experience.

“The media speculation is expected and likely to continue for some time.

“If there is ever news to share about our business you will hear it from us. Our team will continue to keep in touch and please feed through any questions to your dealer manager.

“Thank you for choosing St. George Auto Finance.”

Westpac owns 75 per cent of St George Motor Finance Ltd. The plan is to move the wealth assets into a new structure and then consider selling or floating it.

Mr King said in the report: “The changes are a significant step to reducing the complexity of our portfolio and will allow the group executives to focus on improving performance in our Australian and New Zealand banking businesses.”

A new structure called Specialist Businesses division was set up last year and is run by Jason Yetton. Mr Yetton came to Westpac from Commonwealth Bank where he was chief executive officer of NewCo, a similar scenario to his Westpac role. NewCo is CBA’s planned business unit that collated its wealth management and mortgage broking arms.

NewCo was also intended to be sold off by CBA.

By John Mellor