Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Convertible Preference Share Offer

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited (the Bank) today announced that the prospectus lodged by BEN with ASIC on 29 October 2008 (Prospectus) in connection with the Offer of Convertible Preference Shares (CPS) had been withdrawn and no offers would be made under the Prospectus.

The Bank has decided not to offer the proposed issue of CPS at this time in light of the current uncertainty in financial markets. Joint Lead Managers Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs JBWere and ABN AMRO have advised that, since we issued the prospectus a week ago, there has been a significant deterioration in market conditions for hybrid issues. We have received positive responses to the offer from some shareholders, however we are concerned that the current market conditions mean the deal is no longer in the best interests of investors. The Bank will continue to review market conditions and may relaunch the CPS offer, or undertake other suitable capital initiatives, in the future.