Financial services group Perpetual Limited has announced it has undertaken its first major step in its Transformation 2015 program by reaching an agreement to sell its mortgage processing business (trading as Perpetual Lenders Mortgages Services or ‘PLMS’) to FAF International Property Services, an affiliate of First Mortgage Services (FMS).

 

Perpetual flagged its intention to sell PLMS as part of its Transformation 2015 announcement last month. As at the end of May, the business employed around 280 FTEs nationally.

 

Perpetual CEO and Managing Director Geoff Lloyd hailed the sale agreement as a major step towards the company becoming Australia’s largest independent wealth manager of choice.

 

“The sale allows us to refocus our Corporate Trust business on corporate fiduciary services, in line with the objectives of Transformation 2015. While PLMS is competitively well positioned, Perpetual ultimately was not its natural owner. PLMS fits better within a company that can add scale and technological innovation in this particular business activity, such as FMS,” Mr Lloyd said.

 

Terms of the sale were not disclosed and the transaction is not expected to be material to Perpetual’s net profit after tax.