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ISCOVER
Staff Reporter
One of Australia’s non-bank lenders has recorded a resilient full-year financial result in the face of a challenging mortgage market.
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Despite a subdued economic environment and a highly competitive market, Homeloans focused on growing its business with the acquisition of Refund Home Loans and the addition of 54 new brokers to the Homeloans network.
According to a statement by the company, this acquisition increased the group’s funds under administration to $7.8 billion.
Normalised net profit after tax, after adjusting for one-off costs associated with the acquisition of Refund and non-cash adjustments, was $8 million, which was in line with the normalised net profit after tax for 30 June 2011 of $8.1 million.
In addition, the non-bank lender has continued to successfully grow its own branded loan book, achieving annualised growth of 6.3 per cent on June 2011, reflecting ongoing focus on providing a competitive offering and on retention activities.
Speaking about the results, Homeloans’ executive chairman Tim Holmes said he was pleased to see the company achieve growth in a tough market.
“In a year that was defined by historically low housing credit growth due to global and local economic factors and subdued consumer confidence, not to mention intense competition in home lending, Homeloans has had an unwavering strategic growth focus. The Refund acquisition is testament to this. Indeed, acquiring the Refund business has provided an excellent platform for taking Homeloans to the next level,” he said.
As part of the acquisition, Homeloans acquired trail income and expense rights to Refund’s $1.9 billion loan book. In addition, 54 former Refund brokers entered into agreements to become Homeloans-branded brokers.
“It enhances our broker network by almost 80 per cent around Australia – particularly on the eastern seaboard. In turn, this will significantly expand Homeloans’ branded distribution,” Mr Holmes said.
“Our core tenets remain unchanged; we are focused on expanding our business via acquisitions and organic growth, increasing lending volumes through strategic relationships with our wholesale funders and enhancing our product offering. This has underpinned Homeloans’ performance over the past 12 months and helped differentiate the Group from its competitors.”
