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All Domain Home Loan brokers remain employed and business is operating as usual, Lendi has confirmed, despite its JV partner Domain treating it as a discontinued operation.
Mortgage broking group Lendi Group has confirmed to The Adviser that Domain Home Loans (DHL) remains operational and brokers are still employed, despite property technology group Domain Holdings Australia Limited (Domain) announcing last week that it was treating the business as a “discontinued operation” and was pursuing a sale exit of its 60 per cent stake in the joint venture.
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While releasing the financial results for Domain last week, chief executive Jason Pellegrino revealed that it had made the decision to sell the DHL joint venture (formerly known as Domain Loan Finder), which it has run with Lendi since 2017.
Speaking last week, Mr Pellegrino said that while home loans could “play a key role” in Domain’s marketplace strategy in the future, it was looking to pull out of its current JV.
He said: “[W]hile DHL continued to outperform the broader lending market, Domain sees much greater potential than has been able to be achieved through the joint venture. After an extensive period of discussions with our Joint Venture partner, Domain has made a decision to pursue a sale exit of the business. DHL is being held for sale, and treated as a discontinued operation, and is therefore excluded from trading results.”
According to Domain’s financial results, DHL had generated $8.8 million of revenue but had $14.1 million of expenses (incurring an EBITDA loss of $5.3 million).
Mr Pellegrino added that Domain “sees the potential for future opportunities with alternative solutions that allow for deep integration, a low cost structure, and alignment on future direction that will support a profitable contribution”.
However, Lendi Group has said it was “not aware of any active sale process” for the Domain Home Loans JV, with David Hyman, the CEO of Lendi Group, stating the company was “disappointed to see Domain announce a factually incorrect and fundamentally misleading statement to the market claiming Domain Home Loans is for sale”.
Mr Hyman said at the time: “Lendi Group remains committed to upholding our extensive obligations in the Domain Home Loans Shareholders Agreement, and expects that Domain does the same, as such we were surprised to read Domain announced to the market its stake in Domain Home Loans is for sale and it is pursuing other opportunities outside of the DHL joint venture.”
Brokers still employed, it’s BAU, says Lendi
The Adviser reached out to Domain for further detail on the status of DHL but was advised that it was not providing any further commentary.
However, Lendi Group has confirmed to The Adviser that all DHL brokers are employed by Lendi Group and it was running business as usual with no disruption to the platform, brokers, or customers.
In a statement to The Adviser, the broking group said: “Lendi Group remains committed to the Domain Home Loans JV which is continuing to operate on a business-as-usual basis.
“All Domain Home Loan brokers remain employed and are all very busy helping our new and existing customers find a great deal on a home loan.
“We are looking forward to a busy and successful spring season.”
The group added that the Lendi platform “remains tightly integrated with Domain” and that it had “big plans for the financial year ahead”.
“We look forward to helping the hundreds of thousands of customers each year that trust Domain Home Loans with their home loan needs,” the statement continued.
According to Lendi Group, DHL had experienced growth in settlements – with a compound annual growth rate of 42 per cent since FY21 and up 19 per cent year on year – even while new mortgage lending falls.
Moreover, the group said that since Lendi merged with Aussie Home Loans in 2021, DHL settlements have increased by 100 per cent on a monthly basis.
[Related: Lendi Group regains lost market share]
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