Bradford & Bingley Plc is pleased to announce that it has today signed a further agreement with GMAC-RFC which allows the Group to acquire up to £1.4 billion of mortgage portfolios over the next year. This agreement follows the purchase of a number of similar loan portfolios from GMAC-RFC for a total consideration of £2.0 billion since September 2002.
The acquisition will be made in four tranches, the size of which will be determined by Bradford & Bingley. The minimum consideration for each of the four tranches will be £100 million up to a combined maximum total of £1.4 billion.
The assets will be acquired by Mortgage Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bradford & Bingley Plc, and will be funded from the Group's existing resources.
This latest loan portfolio acquisition will increase the Group's managed assets, which stood at £29.4 billion on 30th June 2003, by up to 4.8%. Although the mix of the mortgages acquired will not be finalised until Bradford & Bingley exercises its option to buy each portfolio, they will have similar characteristics to the portfolios the Group previously acquired from GMAC-RFC in September 2002, March 2003 and under the agreement signed in April 2003.
All lending in the portfolios will be secured on residential property and of a credit risk profile comparable to the previous £2.0 billion of similar portfolios acquired. In addition to reviewing the credit controls GMAC-RFC employed in originating the loan portfolios, Mortgage Express will further test the loan books using its own credit scoring process to confirm that they meet the Bradford & Bingley Group's credit standards.
Notes
- Bradford & Bingley has previously acquired a number of similar loan portfolios from GMAC-RFC. A portfolio acquisition was made for a total consideration of £650 million in September 2002. This was followed by a further portfolio purchase in March 2003 for a total consideration of £470 million. The Group announced in April 2003 that it had entered into an agreement with GMAC-RFC to purchase three further mortgage loan portfolios up to a total consideration of £1.05 billion. The three purchases made under this agreement were for respective total considerations of £260 million in May 2003, £151 million in July 2003 and £440 million in November 2003.
- Bradford & Bingley only offers loans secured on property. As at 30th June 2003, its loan portfolio stood at £23.1 billion of which 81% was secured on residential property and 19% secured on commercial property (including Housing Associations). Buy-to-let lending accounted for around 35% of the Group’s total residential lending assets.
- As at 30th June 2003 Bradford & Bingley had approximately 39,000 buy-to-let customers, around three quarters of whom had mortgages on only one property. The average loan size for total buy-to-let balances at 30th June 2003 was approximately £104,000 nationally and £151,000 in London. The average loan-to-value of the Group’s buy-to-let loans was 71% based on original valuation and 62% based on current values. The average income of a typical buy-to-let customer is £60,000 pa.
- Mortgage Express is the specialist lending arm of the Bradford & Bingley Group. It provides a range of niche mortgages, including mortgages for the self-employed, buy-to-let and 100% loans.
- The consideration figure includes the assets purchased and a premium payable to GMAC-RFC.
If you would like to discuss the information in this statement, please contact:
Investor Relations
Phillip McLelland
01274 806112
Investor Relations Advisers
MacMaster & Company
Kirsten Hendrie
020 7493 9500
Media Relations
Siobhan Hotten
020 7067 5627
Media Relations Advisers
Tulchan Communications
Katie Macdonald-Smith
020 7353 4200