Home of Choice had to be bailed out by LSL in early May after monthly losses of around £50,000.
First Complete’s chief executive, Jon Round, said the network is delighted with the turnaround, adding that the firm is now seeing a small profit each month which is expected to increase as pipeline business completes.
He told Mortgage Introducer: “This is really positive for First Complete and on top of moving from a bulky loss position under Home of Choice to a small profit each month under First Complete, our new business figures are ahead of target. Particularly in the Life and General Insurance sectors – that will feed into our future profit growth later this year.”
Round added that First Complete’s insurance business is around 10% ahead of plan.
Following the transfer of Home of Choice advisers to First Complete, several advisers were blocked by the Financial Services Authority but Round said he understands that of those, the advisers who wanted to continue with First Complete have now successfully transferred and the network is “back to business as usual”.
New recruits
Round said: “There are now 450 appointed representatives writing business at First Complete and we have a pipeline of potential recruits that we’re looking to sign as well. We’ve been able to re-engage with some of those advisers who wanted to join Home of Choice before the deal went through.”
Round said the network is working with all of its appointed representatives to help them increase their revenues and improve business volumes through a range of programmes, including some to help advisers write more protection business.
First Complete’s parent company LSL also reported strong results yesterday which included a statement on the acquisition.
It said: “In addition, as announced on 7 May 2010, the business and assets of Home of Choice, now re-branded to First Complete, was acquired for a total consideration of £0.4m to provide a step change to our financial services offer.
“The acquisition of Home of Choice together with LSL's existing financial services assets creates the fourth largest mortgage network in the UK. We believe that this further strengthens LSL's proposition to the mortgage lender market and in turn further cements our relationships with our key clients.”
LSL announced profits before tax of £19.7 million in the first half of 2010, a significant increase from 2009’s profit of £4.3 million.
