Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited (ASX: BEN) senior executives are attending a global investor roadshow set for Monday in New York.

The bank's chief executive Mike Hirst will be speaking to major fund managers and investors at Merrill Lynch's annual conference for Australian companies. It will be the first time for Bendigo to actively participate in the New York conference.

The New York trip brushes off speculations of a merger with the Bank of Queensland.

Around 40 percent of Bendigo's shareholders are institutional investors. Morever, around 20 percent of shareholders are large offshore funds looking for exposure to the Australian retail banking market. Offshore shareholders are based in North America, Asia, and Europe.

Offshore shares include the 3.5 percent holding of French bank BRED Banque Populaire. The BRED holds a 12.6 share in the Bank of Queensland.

Bendigo would be competing against the Commonwealth Bank, which has an institutional shareholder base slightly over 45 percent, and the Australian and New Zealand Bank, which has an institutional base of 55 percent.

More than half of the shares in Bendigo's $300 million capital raising last year were sold to institutional investors. The bank's network now stretches from Tambellup in Western Australia to Tumbarumba in southern New South Wales.