Count ups Mortgage Choice stake
Mainstream financial services houses are continuing their push into the hard-pressed mortgage broking and aggregation sector with the Commonwealth Bank last week confirming it had reached agreement to pick up 33 per cent of Aussie Home Loans while Count Financial has lifted its stake in Mortgage Choice to 15.2 per cent.
At the same time as other major secondary lender Wizard has announced it has actually dropped its home mortgage rate, both Count and the Commonwealth indicated they saw value in investing in the home loan industry in Australia.
Announcing that Count had picked up a further 10.3 per cent stake in Mortgage Choice on Friday, the big dealer group reiterated that it believed it could add value to Mortgage Choice, its shareholders and its franchisees.
It said it had previously announced that it had made an approach to the Mortgage Choice Board and that Mortgage Choice had indicated it did not want to discuss a merger at that time.
“Count will continue to assess its options around Mortgage Choice and its investment,” the Count announcement said.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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