No future for Rams
Rams Home Loans Group chairman John Kinghorn put paid to any speculation about the prospects of new business ventures for the failed mortgage lender when he told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting yesterday that the company was no longer a going concern. He went on to say that the company, to be called RHG Ltd after the completion of the sale of its brand and franchise operation to Westpac in January, will exist "only to service and collect the income from what will be a closed and amortising loan book."The company expects that the surplus cash to be paid to shareholders will be in the form of full franked dividends. Kinghorn said: "We are not going to set up a cash box. I have no intention of doing anything else."Kinghorn presided over a short and low-key meeting at which shareholders voted to approve the Westpac deal. Westpac will purchase the brand and origination network for $140 million, fund up to $500 million of loan settlements from November 15 and participate in a syndicate to refinance one or both of Rams' two US commercial paper programs, which mature in February.By February the commercial paper loan books are expected to be worth $5.5 billion - $2.5 billion in XCP Series 2 and $3 billion in XCP Series 3a. Kinghorn said: "Since our ASX announcement last Wednesday we have received some additional indicative credit approvals. "Including the cornerstone investment by Westpac of $1.5 billion, Rams now has credit approvals, subject to pricing, documentation and due diligence, totaling $4.25 billion and is in advanced negotiation with relation to the remaining $1.25 billion."Most of this extra funding must be from National Australia Bank, which is the market swap provider on the series 2 XCP program and thus obliged to shoulder the credit risk in the event of a default by Rams. Presumably ABN Amro, as swap provider on the series 3a program, will finance the rest.