Westpac Australias Biggest Lender By Market Cap

Post by NeilMc on December 8, 2008 · Under Company News, banking · Comment

Westpac is officially Australia’s largest bank after having completed it’s A$ 17 billion acquisition of St. George last week. Westpac’s market capitalisation at the close of trading on Friday was A$ 44 billion, just above CBA’s A$ 43.1 billion market cap.

At the time of the merger announcement between Westpac and St. George back in May, the combination of the two lenders would have had a $ 66 billion market capitalisation on a pro forma basis. The resulting sell off in equities and subsequent revaluation over the last two quarters has wiped billions of dollars from stock market valuations and in shareholder value.

Total losses or write-down’s which have resulted from the subprime and subsequent credit crisis is just short of US$ 1 trillion. Financial institutions have raised US$ 886 billion in replacement capital for write-downs which currently stand at US$ 977.6 billion. About two thirds of the red ink has flowed in the US where total write-down’s stand at US$ 668 billion.

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