Pepper Completes Acquisition of $5.0 Billion Residential Mortgage Portfolio

Thursday, 11 Aug 2011

Monday, 8 August 2011, Australia: Australian specialist mortgage lender, Pepper Australia Pty Limited ("Pepper") today announced that it has successfully concluded its acquisition of a $5.0 billion residential mortgage portfolio originated by GE Capital in Australia and New Zealand. The acquisition was initially announced on 25 May 2011.

Pepper Managing Director & CEO, Patrick Tuttle, reiterated the Company’s excitement about the future for its business in both Australia and New Zealand. "The acquisition of this loan portfolio is transformational for Pepper. It enables us to grow assets under management quickly at a time when non bank lenders are seeking to grow their market share, rebuild a competitive marketplace, and broaden the choice of home lending options for consumers."

Pepper Executive Chairman, Mike Culhane commented, "The strong support of our senior facility providers, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corporation, as well as mezzanine investors comprising Deutsche Bank AG, Värde Partners, Inc., York Capital Management, IFM’s Alternative Fixed Income Fund, MKM Capital and Sturt Capital has been instrumental in enabling Pepper to complete this milestone transaction.”

Patrick Tuttle added, “We now look forward to completing the detailed integration of day-to-day servicing and management of the GE Capital loan book with Pepper’s existing lending and third-party servicing operations. This will create exciting employment opportunities as we establish a new loan servicing and customer service centre in Parramatta, further expanding upon our existing origination and servicing platform located in North Sydney.”