The buy up from Skipton Building Society includes Pink’s subsidiary business BDS Mortgage Group with the deal still subject to approval from the FSA.
LSL has bought the entire share capital in AMF for a purchase price of £1.59 million which LSL is funding from existing banking facilities.
Pink will be run independently from LSL’s other financial services businesses and operate as a standalone network. The management will report into the LSL executive team but retain its existing management team run under Managing director, David Copland’s leadership.
LSL said the move marks a natural progression for Pink, which is ready to build on its significant market position by entering the next phase of its evolution.
For Skipton, the sale marks a continued re-focusing on core customer activities, announced earlier this year, it said.
LSL confirmed Pink’s new partnership with LSL brings together 1,000 Authorised Representative advisers across the Group, including First Complete and more than 300 advisers in Linear Financial Solutions and across its estate agencies Your Move and Reeds Rains.
LSL has a £75m acquisition facility which made half year profits before tax of £19.7m. LSL said it is one of the few companies to make a strong profit throughout the past three years, and has continued to grow both organically and through acquisition.
This acquisition includes the Pink Mortgage Club and Pink ClubVIP which have over 5000 Directly Authorised intermediary members. LSL intends to invest further the Pink Mortgage Club to enhance the proposition for the Directly Authorised market.
Simon Embley, chief executive of LSL said Pink Home Loans is a high quality business that will add significantly to LSL’s distribution capability.
“The mortgage market remains relatively unconsolidated at the moment, particularly in the mortgage space. What we looked for is something of substance – with any network you really need to work with scale. There are also two ways you can go – the niche route or the service route – but either way, if it doesn’t work financially, there’s no network.”
“If you look at the LSL company profile, we’re UK residential up and down the value chain. We try to be in the top three in every one of the sectors we have businesses in,” he said.
With Pink included in the Group, LSL is well positioned to drive value for our shareholders, our broker and lender partners and their customers, he added.
David Copland, managing director of Pink Home Loans, added: “In this new business and regulatory climate, scale is a vital component in the success of distribution businesses like ours – something Pink has been developing over the past three years with its organic growth and the acquisition of BDS. It is testament to the quality of our appointed representatives and our staff that LSL have acquired the business. This new relationship with LSL further enhances our capability and we are looking forward to the exciting new opportunities it represents.”
David Cutter, Skipton Group chief executive, said: “This marks the start of an exciting new era for everyone at Pink and the deal signals positive opportunities for both businesses. Our partnership has spanned over a decade and during that time, Pink has become an award winning mortgage distribution company. LSL is the ideal partner to help take Pink to the next stage of its development.”
