Skipton has no plans to offer its products through any third party packager, despite its purchase of Pink Home Loans in July.
However, Peter Craddock, head of corporate investments at Skipton, said the building society would not rule out pursuing this route in the future. “It would be something we would examine when it next comes up for review.”
The acquisition of Pink means that Skipton now owns 10 subsidiary firms, making it the seventh largest building society in the UK with assets of over £5bn. It also means that Pink now has the financial backing to begin a period of expansion which will see its workforce more than double in the next 18 months.
David Copland, sales and marketing director at Pink Home Loans, said: “When you are a small private company that wants to undertake a number of new projects, you have to finance yourself or perhaps go to venture capitalists, and you still can only afford to do one project at a time. The acquisition by Skipton gives us access to a funding arm for all our developments.”
Pink is already one of the largest packagers, placing over 4,500 loans last year which totalled more than £300m. Craddock said: “We would not purchase a company unless it has a good track record in management competence and profitability. We look for businesses which are successful in their own right, but as our subsidiary they run themselves.”
