Investec has reached an agreement to sell its Irish intermediated mortgage business Start Mortgage Holdings Limited.
It was announced today (15 September) that Start will be sold for an undisclosed sum together with other Irish mortgage assets to an affiliate of Lone Star Funds.
The deal comes just days after the sale of Kensington Group Limited.
For the year ended 31 March 2014, Start and the other Irish mortgage assets reported a loss before taxation of £21m, had gross assets of £540m and about 70 employees.
Investec’s funding line to the group, which was about £270m as at 31 March 2014, is to be repaid entirely at completion.
Completion is expected towards the end of 2014 and is subject to regulatory approval.
Investec completed the sale of UK mortgage lender Kensington to private equity buyers Blackstone and TPG Capital for £180m in cash last week.
The listed South African banking and financial services group has owned Kensington for seven years and the deal comes seven months after it first revealed it had been approached over a potential sale.
Investec is set to receive £180m for it’s mortgage businesses in cash, a valuation it said is based on a “tangible net asset value of the business of £165m at 31 March 2014”.
