ANZ contract lifts Perpetual mortgage services

Perpetual's mortgage servicing operation enjoyed a big increase in business volume in the December half after winning a contract with one of the big banks.

The "number of matters" handled by the business increased from 45,000 in the six months to December 2008 to 51,000 in the June half and then to 81,000 in the latest half.

Perpetual chief executive David Deverall, who presented the group's results for the December half yesterday, would not say which of the big four had come on board, but it is understood to be ANZ.

Deverall said his mortgage servicing team was in regular talks with other big lenders and he was confident the group could continue its expansion.

Mortgage services contributed $13.7 million to the $41.6 million of revenue reported by Perpetual's corporate trust division.

Divisional revenue was on par with the $41 million of revenue for the previous corresponding period, and up on the $39.3 million of revenue in the June half.

The improved performance of mortgage services made up for the fall in revenue from the division's other business, securitisation services.

With securitisation market activity recovering but still well below levels of a couple of years ago, Perpetual's securitised funds under administration fell from $241.4 billion in June to $222.4 billion in December.

Revenue from securitised services fell from $29.9 million in December 2008 to $28.5 million in the June half and to $27.9 billion in the latest half.

Deverall said he was keen to explore opportunities for the division in other parts of the capital markets. He said there may be opportunities for a corporate trustee in water and carbon trading.

The corporate trust division contributed $19.4 million of EBITDA to the group result.

Perpetual reported net profit of $49.2 million for the half, up from $14.2 million in the previous corresponding period.

After adjusting for earnings from its exact market cash fund (a cash-based guaranteed return fund that has been a loss maker over the past couple of years) it reported underlying profit of $36.4 million, down from $41.6 million in the previous period.