NAB loose out to CBA who buy Wizard
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia along with Aussie Home Loans bought Wizard Home Loans in January 2009.
The CBA, who has a 33 per cent stake in Aussie, will take on up to $4 billion of Wizard originated home loans while Aussie Home Loans said it will purchase the Wizard brand and distribution network for an undisclosed sum from Wizard parent company GE Money.
Aussie Home Loans executive chairman John Symond said his company began to consider a deal when it heard that NAB had not finalised a deal, and approached GE Money.
Commonwealth will acquire $2 billion of loans at the end of February, 2009 but the timing of the other $2 billion in loans will be decided soon.
The Wizard mortgage portfolio included "prime mortgages that meet the Commonwealth Bank's strict lending criteria and are 100 per cent mortgage insured, with a maximum loan to valuation ratio of 90 per cent," the bank said.
National Australia Bank had been in the running to purchase the Wizard portfolio and was last week in advanced talks to make the acquisition. The sale of Wizard's Australian prime mortgage portfolio and brand comes a week after the company's New Zealand operations collapsed.
Wizard once claimed to be NZ's fastest growing alternative home lender backed with the financial strength of one of the world's largest companies. GE Money bought Wizard in 2004 and GE Money will continue to earn an income stream from the loans it is retaining, local president and chief executive Mike Cutter said
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