Firstfolio adds surety products to keep growth momentum going

ASX-listed mortgage aggregator Firstfolio is not letting the slowdown in the mortgage market deter it from its expansion strategy.

Firstfolio purchased two Queensland mortgage brokers in October, entirely funded by scrip. Those groups were Blue Coast Finance and Premium Mortgage Group.

CEO Mark Forsyth said another nine companies had been short listed.

A director of the company, Mark Flack, said he would like to think another acquisition would be completed before the end of the year.

In the meantime the company has done a distribution deal with a company called Aussie Bonds to sell a range of surety products, including deposit bonds, lease and rental guarantee bonds.

The deal with Aussie Bonds gives Firstfolio access to a growing range of surety products offered by the group. Aussie Bonds, formed in September, is part of a company called Audit Services, which is owned by Insureaust, whose only shareholder is Kerry Henry.

A deposit bond is purchased by a property buyer and issued to the vendor. If the property sale does not go ahead the surety provider pays the vendor an amount equivalent to the deposit and then pursues the buyer to recover its costs.

A lease or rental bond pays the landlord an amount equivalent to a bond if the tenant defaults.

Aussie Bonds works with underwriters Lumley and QBE. The managing director of the business, Tony Ruppas, worked at insurer Vero when it launched a deposit bond in 1989.