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Australia’s largest asset finance aggregation group achieved record volumes in the financial year 2024 as a result of organic growth and acquisition.
Asset finance group COG Financial Services Limited has released its financial results for the financial year ended 30 June, revealing that its broker network had helped write a record volume of business over the year.
The group – which covers broking and aggregation businesses (such as COG Aggregation and Platform), novated leasing (including CarSelect), asset management and lending (including Westlawn), and financial advisory (such as Centrepoint Alliance) – saw the 1,767 brokers in its network finance $8.9 billion in assets over the year.
Its record volumes were achieved through both organic growth and acquisitions (such as the acquisition of the NFC and UFS aggregation businesses) and represented a 15 per cent rise ($1.2 billion increase) on FY23 figures.
Around $4.3 billion was written in the first half and $4.5 billion was financed in the second half of the year.
The group said that there had been particularly strong activity in its broker-first car buying service CarSelect, which reported a 25 per cent increase in car purchases (the vast majority coming through its aggregation channel), and Westlawn, which delivered a 104 per cent increase in its commercial finance for cars and equipment (distributed through the COG broker network). As such, Westlawn settled $125 million in FY24.
Speaking of the results, Ryan Young, the CEO of COG Broking and Aggregation, said the FY24 results were “pleasing”, particularly as they had followed “an extraordinary FY23”.
He said: “We experienced a slow start to FY24 as the pipeline built back up after a record finish in June 2023; however, growth rates bounced back over Q2 and Q3 before flattening out in Q4.
“Activity in the upper end of the SME sector, with stronger-credit clients, fared best, particularly those companies with larger operations and fleets. And despite the economic headwinds, equipment continues to depreciate and require replacement.”
Young said that the acquisitions of NFC and UFS had made COG the largest asset finance aggregation group in Australia and “rounded out [its] offering to our brokers and lender partners”.
“With the additional product expertise from the NFC staff and brokers we feel very confident to say we are genuinely the asset finance expert among aggregators,” he said, adding that it will continue to increase its investment in asset finance technology, cyber security, data protection and operations and compliance support for brokers.
“I believe we are the only ones, at scale, building specifically for this part of the market.”
Looking to the future, COG said it would continue to “remain active” in the identification of strategic acquisitions to add to its underlying organic growth trajectory.
However, the CEO said: “We don’t just grow in any direction for growth’s sake. It has always been our intent to use our scale to deliver solutions and support that are specific to AF [asset finance] brokers.
“We believe this market is big enough and distinctive enough to warrant specific tools and support, rather than AF brokers and lenders having to be the ‘poor cousins’ or fit in with mortgage processes and systems.
“We are constantly reviewing and enhancing our offerings to help our brokers grow their businesses.”
In addition to traditional asset finance products, Young said that more clients were now using asset finance brokers for other finance solutions, such as working capital products and insurance premium funding.
“A lot more of our brokers are benefiting from the wider group’s offerings. For example, having our Paywise novated leasing referral network readily accessible is a great advantage of being a COG member,” Young said.
“We provide options for brokers to add value to their existing clients and within their core business, such as sourcing a vehicle, offering a novated lease, or referring consumer or commercial asset transactions, if that is an area that they don’t handle themselves.”
[Related: 2 asset finance aggregators acquired by COG]
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