NZF home loan deal still on: Thornton
NZF Group's deal with the unnamed Australian private company which is expected to take a majority stake in NZF's home loans division should still proceed despite the group's subsidiary NZF Money going into receivership last week, says chief executive Mark Thornton.
Tuesday, July 26th 2011, 3:00PM
by Jenny Ruth
"As late as today (Tuesday), we have confirmation that the proposed transaction with the Australian investor should take place as that business is not linked to NZF Money," Thornton says.
"The receivership does not have any effect on the rest of the group apart from some brand damage I suspect," he says.
NZF continues to own its home loans division and 50% of the Mike Pero Mortgages franchise group, both of which are profitable.
Managing NZF Money "has been a very big challenge since the massive run off in debentures leading up to the expiry of the government guarantee last October," Thornton says.
Since then, the company had been very reliant on loan repayments to meet maturing debentures "which, of course, were not assisted by negative downgrades from S&P (international ratings agency Standard & Poor's)."
S&P rightly pointed to NZF Money's low reinvestment rates but that “to a degree became self fulfilling,” he says.
Heading into receivership, NZF Money owed debenture holders about $18 million. That's a long way from the $63.8 million it owed debenture holders at March 31, 2010.
The finance company's last prospectus update on June 30 also showed it still had equity of $10 million, although past due loans were $19 million.
Thornton says it's too early to comment on the likely return to debenture holders but that the $19 million in loans were deliberately allowed to become past due so NZF Money could be in a position to force repayment.
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