Lendi plans to write 1 in 10 home loans

Speaking to Mortgage Business, Lendi Group CEO David Hyman said the brokerage has been “extremely busy” since it merged with Aussie Home Loans in May 2021 and has big plans to take a larger slice of the mortgage market.

“We have a thousand staff and our market share hit 6.2 per cent in December. Our settlements are broadly flat over the six months to 31 December, but market share is always what we are chasing,” Mr Hyman said.

According to the Lendi Group head, the brokerage group is already the largest originator of home loans in Australia after the big four banks.

“We are very much a growth business. We have big aspirations. Market share is currently 6.2 per cent and we are looking to double that over the next few years, which will be no mean feat given we are the number one retail originator of loans in the market behind the big four banks. We need good people to do that,” Mr Hyman said.

The growth plans come amid a number of high profile redundancies at the group. Lendi confirmed that David Smith was stepping down as the CEO of lending after more than 15 years with the company. Mortgage Business understands that long-serving Aussie staffers Liz Fowler (head of home lending), Brett Graham (head of operations), Cameron Baseley (QLD state manager), and Glen Edwards (Victoria state manager) will also leave the company this week as part of a major restructure.

Lendi merged with Aussie Home Loans in May 2021 to form the Lendi Group.

At the time of the merger, Lendi’s loan book was approximately $8 billion, while Aussie’s loan book was $70 billion. Aussie Home Loans celebrated its 30th anniversary around the time of the merger.

“When you look at the two businesses, Aussie has a really rich history,” Mr Hyman said. “So your old business, the original disruptor in the space, and Lendi was a fast-growing fintech. While not as large as Aussie Home Loans, it obviously had significant growth under its belt and that growth ultimately led to an equity value that meant we were able to organise the transaction.”

However, Mr Hyman could not confirm whether Lendi’s rapid growth and significant market share had been realised in strong company profits.

“When you’re looking at organisations there are a bunch of different ways you can look at them. You can look at growth rates, you can look at volume of revenue, you can look at loan book and you can look at profitability,” he said, adding that the company doesn’t release its profitability figures publicly.

[Related: Mortgagors refinancing at ‘rapid speed’: Lendi]