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Following the sale of its mortgage operations to National Australia Bank early last week, Challenger Financial Services yesterday reported a net loss of $90.7 million for fiscal 2009.
Last year the company posted a net loss of $44 million.
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Despite the loss, on a normalised basis Challenger reported $218.9 million of net profit.
The company’s profit, on a normalised basis, last year was $217.9 million.
In a statement submitted to the Australian Securities Exchange, Challenger’s chief executive Dominic Stevens said the mortgage management business had been a major contributor to the cash profitability of the group, with the acquisition of the PLAN mortgage aggregation business boosting mortgages under administration to $75.3 billion.
“Despite testing market conditions, we finished the year with an increase in normalised profits and enviable cash and capital balances to fund future growth,” Mr Stevens said.
“This position was further strengthened by last week's sale of our mortgage operations and the retention of 80 per cent of its earning in the life company.
“The group is very well capitalised and capable of moving quickly on opportunities expected to arise for life and funds management.”
Challenger made it clear yesterday that they would be looking at various new acquisition targets after its better than expected results.
The company advised that it would look offshore and at the local market for targets to bolster it annuities division.
