Non-bank lender Firstmac may be back on the hunt for a banking licence after acquiring a 19.9 per cent stake in BNK Banking Corp.
BNK announced yesterday that two of its biggest shareholders, John Kolenda and Calvin Ng, have reduced their holdings in the company by selling to Firstmac and associates.
Kolenda has reduced his shareholdings from 12.1 per cent to 0.15 per cent and Ng has reduced his stake from 7.3 per cent to 4.1 per cent. Kolenda is stepping down from the board but Ng will remain a director.
BNK chief executive Allan Savins said in a statement to the ASX that Firstmac would be “an important institutional investor, strengthening our shareholder base”.
Firstmac released a statement saying: “We have maintained a relationship with BNK Bank for over 10 years. We now deepen our alliance with the bank and look forward to working in partnership to grow our respective businesses.”
Firstmac launched an unsuccessful takeover bid for Goldfields Money (as BNK was then) in 2017.
The Firstmac bid was closed in December 2017 and a month later Goldfields agreed to acquire mortgage aggregator Finsure, which was headed by Kolenda.
The marriage didn’t last long, with BNK selling Finsure to MA Financial early last year.
In 2017 Firstmac received approval to take its stake in Goldfields above 19.9 per cent and make a takeover offer. There is no reason to think it would not get approval to make a bid for BNK.
Firstmac has around A$16 billion of home loans under management and $600 million of auto loans.
BNK has $1.2 billion of loans on its balance sheet and a total loan portfolio of $2.8 billion.