Bendigo and Adelaide Bank will buy the loan book and related assets of mortgage fund Southern Finance for no premium. The bank said it will acquire assets worth around A$290 million.Southern Finance said in a statement on its website that it aimed to finalise the sale by December 3.Southern Finance, based in the Victorian regional city of Warrnambool, is one of the affiliates of the Provic group of finance companies of which the failed Banksia Securities was a prominent member.The mortgage fund is the modern version of several investment funds formerly operated by local law firms McKay Taylor Solicitors, Tait Solicitors and Hunter Newns.Southern Finance specialises in equipment finance and mortgage loans to a largely rural clientele. It also operates a financial planning arm.The net assets of Southern Finance at the end of June were $7.1 million, giving the fund a gearing ratio far below the ASIC benchmark of 20 per cent for a fund with exposure to development finance.Bendigo said it was not currently a financier to Southern Finance, which, to date, has been wholly financed by debentures and unsecured notes.The fund said it had suspended redemptions as of yesterday, making it at least the fifty-eighth mortgage fund to limit withdrawals over the last four years, according to researchers Morningstar.Southern said that further withdrawals would only be available on the stated maturity date.Southern's financial statements for the year to June 2012 put impaired assets at only $141,000 out of $235 million in loans.