Share buyback for AFG
Australian Finance Group is seeking to buy back up to 20 per cent of its capital in an offer that values the aggregator at around $41 million.AFG confirmed the buyback yesterday. Under the proposal AFG aims to buy back roughly 27 million shares at 30 cents a share.It isn't clear if the buyback is aimed at select investors in the firm such as Macquarie Bank or insurance groups Allianz and Tower.AFG has been a reasonable generator of cash in recent years and continues to trade well.Australian Finance Group reported a rise of 42 per cent in net profit to $18.3 million in the year to June 2008, up from $12.8 million in 2007. The aggregator reported a return on equity of 49 per cent.AFG paid a dividend of $15.9 million to shareholders, up from $12.0 million the year before. The firm reported net assets of $38 million at June 2008.The aggregator reported a record month for mortgage sales last month with almost 9000 loans with a value of $3.2 billion introduced to lenders, which these days are almost all major banks, though those lenders are starting to harm the brand of all mortgage brokers with long delays in processing home loan applications.