Bluestone actively managing loans

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Former specialist lender Bluestone is still active in the financial markets, albeit in a different guise to when it originated loans.

Tuesday, March 31st 2009, 7:17AM 1 Comment

Chief executive Peter Woods, who has shifted from Sydney to Christchurch says the business is now managing loan books and has a total of $2.5 billion in Australia and New Zealand.

Bluestone Servicing looks after the company’s own loan book, as well as providing third-party servicing options to generate revenue by acquiring and servicing non-performing loan portfolios.

Bluestone is looking to manage more loan books and believes there are opportunities with finance companies and mortgage funds.

One deal it did late last year was to buy part of the Provincial Finance book and manage that.

Woods says that was done with the help of its, unnamed, equity partner.

The company stopped lending and its home equity release business after the capital markets shut down.

However, Woods believes the company will start lending again when some normality returns to financial markets.

He doesn’t predict when or what sort of lending the company will do, but suggests it could include new areas such as vehicle finance.

There are now opportunities in that market as other lenders, particularly GE and GMAC have pulled out of the market.

Bluestone is one of the only residential loan servicing companies to have ratings from Standard and Poor’s and Fitch.

Fitch has recently upgraded Bluestone from 3+ to 2- while S&P gives it an “above average” rating.

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