Mplc has offloaded the packager and network a little over a year after acquiring it. It admitted it worked closely with its parent company Merrill Lynch on making the decision to sell back the company to Genesis. It had been widely thought that Merrill Lynch would not be interested in the network and would want to sell it off.
Mplc said Genesis was a ‘distraction’ from its core business while Genesis told Mortgage Introducer that it would still be part of Mplc if the lender had wanted to keep it.
Although both parties refused to say how much the company was brought back for, Genesis said it was ‘pleased’ with the sum.
Peter Beaumont, sales and marketing director at Mplc, said: “Our business is up 300 per cent so we want to concentrate on our core areas. Genesis was a distraction for us. But the buyout was amicable. We believe it will make a success of going it alone.”
But Richard Griffiths, managing director of Network Data, said the buyout was ‘strange’. He said: “To say it doesn’t need a parent company when it has always boasted about the financial backing provided by Mplc is a massive U-turn. It wasn’t long ago that Genesis was happy to be sold off again. It is quite strange.”
But Nigel Gardner, business development director at Genesis, said: “We are very confident we can take the firm forward and grow without a parent company. When we were sold to Mplc it was during a time of uncertainty but we are confident we can do it alone now.
“We are not on the market to be sold again. But for the right price of course we would consider it.”
Gardner said its appointed representatives would not be affected by the buyout. He added that the company plans to develop its branded lending proposition.
