Westpac CEO quick to have ex-employer in sights

By Miranda Maxwell

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Just months after moving to Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX: Quote, Profile, Research), Gail Kelly, the first woman to run a top-10 company in Australia, has wowed the industry with a bold bid to buy her former employer St George Bank Ltd (SGB.AX: Quote, Profile, Research).

If the deal goes through, Kelly could be heading Australia's top bank and third-biggest listed company.

"Gail getting into Westpac puts her in a prime seat for taking over St George early on in her stay there," said Peter Vann, head of investment research at Constellation Capital Management.

"St George is ripe for a takeover by a larger player and this just seems such a natural fit given the background and the people involved," said Vann, who owns shares in both banks.

Westpac, Australia's fourth-largest and oldest bank dating back to 1817, said on Monday it was in talks about an all-scrip offer for fifth-ranked St George, which has a market capitalization of $14 billion.

Under Kelly, a former bank teller and schoolteacher from South Africa, who is now Australia's highest paid business woman, St George more than doubled its assets to over A$100 billion ($94 billion) and more than doubled profits to above A$1 billion.

St George, which was a building society until 1992, also emerged as Australia's fastest-growing lender to small businesses, all achieved through organic growth.

Kelly, 52, was at St George for five and a half years.