PLAN NZ sold

Mortgage group PLAN New Zealand has been sold to Loan Market, the mortgage broking subsidiary of the Ray White real estate group.

Tuesday, December 1st 2009, 2:30PM

by Maria Scott

PLAN New Zealand and Loan Market's business will continue to operate independently.

Loan Market executive chairman Sam White said the acquisition gave Loan Market the scale and reach to invest further into its New Zealand operations.

"I am delighted that we are able to bring together two of the most highly regarded mortgage broking groups in NZ under one company.

"This acquisition is good news for all brokers in both PLAN New Zealand and Loan Market, in that it gives certainty of ownership in the groups they belong to.

"It also facilitates our goal to build a broader financial services platform, inclusive of an insurance broking business, for the benefit of Loan Market/PLAN mortgage brokers and their clients

White said there was no plan to integrate PLAN New Zealand mortgage brokers into the Loan Market brand.

"We will continue to grow the PLAN New Zealand business aggressively," he said.

Loan Market currently has approximately 50 mortgage brokers and staff in New Zealand and more than 400 mortgage brokers in Australia.

PLAN NZ which provides funding and commission-distribution services to brokers was put up for sale in October after its Australian parent was sold by the Challenger Financial Services to National Australia Bank.

The announcement that PLAN NZ was up for sale came shortly after the implementation of a cost cutting plan that included the redundancy of New Zealand general manager Julie Stevens, one of the best known figures in the New Zealand mortgage broking industry.

PLAN NZ had suffered a 43% drop in the volume of loans written over a year compared with a 20% drop in Australia.

Ray Hair, chief executive officer of PLAN Australia said at the time that the New Zealand mortgage market had been hit harder by the credit downturn than the Australian market.

PLAN NZ is one of the mortgage broking industry's long-established mortgage aggregation groups and includes some of the highest-profile brokers in the country.

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