Count Financial eyes bigger stake in brokerage

Count Financial has announced its intention to increase its stake in Mortgage Choice, after posting a healthy net profit for the six months ended 31 December 2009.

Count Financial is Mortgage Choice’s largest shareholder, with a 17.33 per cent stake in the mortgage broker.

“Clearly our aim is not to remain at 17 per cent forever, but we are pretty patient,” Count Financial executive chairman Barry Lambert told The Australian Financial Review.

“We don’t need to take control of Mortgage Choice, we have a large base of accountants, and could offer lots of business to them,”

“But if [we were] to do that, the value is all one way, so we need equity in them to compensate,” he said.

Count Financial yesterday posted a net profit after tax of $36.76 million, up 136 per cent from the corresponding period last year.