Skipton Building Society has announced the sale of its mortgage servicing subsidiary, Homeloan Management Limited, in a deal worth more than £47m, to Computershare Ltd.
Skipton said it will receive an initial consideration of £47.5m in exchange for the sale of its 100 per cent shareholding of the firm, plus an adjustment for surplus working capital, together with potential additional payments based on revenue growth in 2015 and 2016.
The initial consideration will generate a profit of £26m and will appear in Skipton’s results in the second half of this year.
The firm said that the sale of the business signalled significant business opportunities for both parties.
Contracts have been exchanged with Computershare, the UK subsidiary of an Australian Securities Exchange-listed company in transfer agency and share registration, employee equity plans and stakeholder communications, with completion conditional upon regulatory approval.
David Cutter, Skipton’s chief executive, said: “HML has been a major success story for Skipton of which we are very proud.
“However, we anticipate major growth opportunities arising in the mortgage outsourcing market which are best seized by the investment from a large multinational company.”
HML’s head office will remain in Skipton and continue to be led by Andrew Jones.
Andrew Jones, chief executive officer at HML, added: “Computershare is committed to investing in and growing HML, allowing us to continue to be the leading third-party mortgage administration company in the UK and Ireland.
“With the desire to grow the business and develop the specialist expertise that HML has, it’s clear to me that culturally we are much aligned with Computershare.”
Skipton will shortly announce its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2014.
