NZF took a hit on Finance Direct sale

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NZF Group lost more than half its original $1.7 million investment in consumer lending specialist Finance Direct at the end of March.

Wednesday, July 13th 2011, 5:00AM

by Jenny Ruth

NZF's 2011 annual report shows it booked an $858,000 loss on the sale and a loss on disposal of its consumer finance operations of $690,00.

The report shows the consumer finance business had $3.3 million in loans and advances to customers, $2.55 million in loans and borrowings and just over $1 million cash at March 30, the sale date.

NZF acquired 51% of Finance Direct in April 2007 and increased its stake to 70% in December 2008. It sold its stake back to minority shareholder and managing director Wayne Croad.

The report also shows NZF decided no further write-downs of its 50% stake in Mike Pero Mortgages were necessary following last year's near

$7 million write-down of goodwill. The stake is valued at $7.51 million, more than NZF's $7.36 million share of Mike Pero's net assets.

That's even though the report shows Mike Pero made a loss for the year of which NZF's share was $4,000, although that was well down from the previous year's $6.85 million loss.

NZF posted a $4.8 million net loss for the year ended March, its third consecutive annual loss, mostly because of bad debt write-offs.

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