Skipton opts to hold on to HML

19 January 2012 10:30 am | By Paul Thomas

Skipton Building Society has taken its mortgage servicer subsidiary HML off the market.

In May last year, Money Marketing revealed the society was looking to sell HML and had issued a prospectus detailing its sales terms. In August, talks broke down between Vertex and Skipton over buying the company.

HML has seen some high-profile account losses in the past year, with GMAC-RFC and Nationwide both bringing administration of their mortgage books in house in December 2010 and January 2011 respectively, although HML signed a new deal with Nationwide to service £1.2bn worth of mortgages originated by Bank of Ireland in December.

HML’s assets under management currently stands at £43bn. It is expected to report a profit of £1.6m for 2011, up from £64,000 the previous year.

A Skipton spokeswoman says: “HML has a bright future as an important part of the diversified Skipton Group and we remain focused on maximising the business’s considerable potential.”

Alexander Hall chief operating officer Andy Pratt says: “This sort of business can be of great value to Skipton as lenders will need to outsource some activities.”

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