Login
Freehills works with Irish firm on Pepper deal
Freehills is advising Pepper Home Loans on its anticipated acquisition of GE Capital’s Irish residential mortgage business, as the Australian company enters the European market._x000D_
The New Lawyer
Freehills is advising Pepper Home Loans Group on its anticipated acquisition of GE Capital’s Irish residential mortgage business, as the Australian company enters the European market.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
The agreement will see GE Capital Woodchester Home Loans Limited’s entire share capital acquired by Pepper, including its 3,500 mortgage customers and portfolio of approximately €600 Million. The company will be renamed to Pepper Ireland Limited following completion of the transaction.
The Freehills team was led by Partner Mark Crean, backed by senior associate, Mark Currell. Irish law firm McCann Fitzgerald also worked with Freehills on the deal.
"Pepper Home Loans has rapidly grown its Australian and New Zealand businesses. It is great to see this dynamic Australian company now expanding into international markets and we are happy to have been a part of this," said Crean.
In a separate agreement, Pepper will also take over the servicing of GE Capital’s Irish portfolio of personal, small enterprise and auto loans, maintaining an ongoing working relationship between the two organisations.
The Freehills team also recently advised Pepper Home Loans on its purchase of more than A$5 billion in mortgage assets from GE Money, marking GE Money’s exit from the Australian and New Zealand local market.
The firm said the transaction involved a complex funding structure to secure financing across the major banks and boutique lenders, "despite challenging market conditions with debt extremely difficult to secure".
