Challenger non-core selling continues

Challenger Financial Services Group is continuing its sale of non-core assets with the offloading of its $150 million margin lending book to Macquarie.

The group has now sold its superannuation administration business and several Australian property investments this year, and is in the process of divesting its more than $1 billion in international property assets in the UK and the US.

The details of the latest offload to Macquarie Margin Lending are confidential and boosts the latter’s business, which experienced solid growth this year according to Macquarie division director Mickey Perret.

“During the past financial year our business grew by more than 40 per cent which compares to an industry growth rate of 23 per cent [and] the Challenger acquisition fits well with our strategy to broaden our distribution,” Perret says.

Perret says the group has been able to expand its distribution through a strategic focus of offering a range of selective products and services.

As a result Perret says Macquarie now provides a full range of investment lending products that include capital protected loans and 100 per cent investment loans on approved guaranteed investments.

“[Our] product range enables our clients to select investments in more than 1,800 securities and to follow a broad range of strategies to suit their investment objectives and circumstances,” Perret says.