NZF writes down value of Mike Pero joint venture

The financial services company made a full-year loss of $4.6 million, compared to $3.4 million a year earlier, after it was forced to impair the value of its MPMH joint venture with Mike Pero Mortgage's by almost $7 million. Excluding the impairment loss, NZF turned around its operating performance to report a $3.4 million profit, from a $4.8 million loss in 2009.

Managing director John Callaghan said the impairment loss came from a reassessment of short-term growth rates and projections to its profitability due to changes in MPMH's KiwiSaver sales and marketing strategy following the global financial crisis, and had no cash impact.

NZF is looking to raise $100 million from institutional investors by securitising a chunk of its loan book in a bid to inject new funds into its mortgage business. Over the 12 month period, NZF boosted its home loans portfolio to $200.5 million from $174.1 million, and it said it will focus its lending on first mortgage securities, which make up about 96% of its loan book.