Half of Mortgage Express sold

Perpetual Trust, which is part of Pyne Gould Corp, has bought 50% of mortgage broker Mortgage Express from real estate firm Harcourts for an undisclosed sum.

Mortgage Express, which has annual turnover of more than $340 million, is based in Auckland and has 23 mobile mortgage managers operating throughout New Zealand.

Perpetual Trust general manager Stephen Eaton says his company thinks Mortgage Express is a good business in its own right. But investing in it will also provide Perpetual with an opportunity to distribute its products, such as insurance, trusts, financial planning and managed funds, through both Mortgage Express and the Harcourts network, he says. Harcourts has 210 offices in New Zealand.

"Trust company businesses are really changing in New Zealand. We're starting to push the envelope a bit," Eaton says.

But Perpetual won't be trying to sell mortgages through those networks: "We haven't really got a competitive product and nor do we intend to develop one," he says.

Harcourts executive director Paul Wright says joining forces with Perpetual "will enable us to explore further products for our clients as part of our 'one-stop-shop' concept, such as trusts, wills and other financial services."

He also sees an opportunity to offer Harcourts and Mortgage Express services to Perpetual's clients.

Perpetual has $8 billion in funds under management and the Marac and Frontline finance companies are also part of the Pyne Gould group.

This isn't the first time Harcourts has linked with a financial institution. Mortgage Express began life in late 1997 as a joint venture between it and National Mutual, which later become AXA.

Then in late 2000, AXA sold its mortgage book, aiming to refocus on its core insurance and investments business, and in September the following year withdrew from Mortgage Express.

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