Bluestone Mortgages provides mortgages in Australia and New Zealand to prime borrowers as well as those who fall outside traditional bank criteria. Bluestone was established in Sydney in early 2000 and has expanded to become a significant lending and asset-management business employing more than 220 staff and with more than A$10.1 billion of assets under management.

The business has developed a suite of industry best-practice systems and processes that have enabled it consistently to originate quality assets at equity-accretive margins.

In Australia, the group has operated a successful mortgage-lending platform for more than 15 years with no loss to any institutional investors.

Athena was founded in July 2017 by Nathan Walsh and Michael Starkey. Since public launch in February 2019, seamless digital experience and highly competitive interest rates have resonated with customers as Athena received more than A$7.5 billion of applications in its first 18 months of operation.

Athena is led by an executive team with deep experience in financial services and delivering innovative customer propositions. The company is backed by a leading group of strategic partners including Macquarie Bank, Square Peg Capital, Hostplus, AirTree, Resimac, Apex Capital and Rice Warner.

In March 2018, entities associated with Cerberus Capital Management completed a transaction with Bluestone Group to purchase Bluestone’s Asia-Pacific operations. As a result, Bluestone Asia Pacific is no longer related to Bluestone UK.

The strategic focus of the group has reduced risk on both sides of the balance sheet, shifting lending focus toward lower credit-risk assets and reducing structural leverage. Bluestone has no debt at corporate level.

Bluestone maintains a disciplined underwriting and pricing policy to generate superior risk-adjusted returns. Bluestone’s cumulative loss in Australia since it recommenced lending in 2013 is 0.15%.

Bluestone’s portfolios are built on conservative security criteria with an average LVR ratio of 66.9%, a focus on higher-population metropolitan securities and a majority of owner-occupied principal-and-interest borrowers.

Bluestone has a wide investor base that consistently supports its securitisation programme, and warehouse facilities from Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deutsche Bank, Macquarie Bank and National Australia Bank with additional facilities being added. The Sapphire securitisation programme has issued more than A$9.4 billion of bonds domestically and offshore.

Bluestone is a frequent issuer in the Australian RMBS market with 31 public securitisation trusts since 2002, including 13 transactions from 2013 to 2020. To date, all securitisations have been in the nonconforming space. However, Bluestone’s origination profile has an increasing portion of prime loans including 64% in the Sapphire 24 RMBS. Going forward, Bluestone expects to issue at least two securitisations per year, in increasing size as the business continues to grow.

The Bluestone business is performing strongly after re-entering mortgage origination in Australia in 2013 and New Zealand in 2017. Having invested heavily over the last five years, Bluestone is generating strong financial performance with significant uptake of product by brokers.

Bluestone maintains strict discipline around pricing, ensuring all products deliver the required risk-adjusted returns. Bluestone will continue expanding its product range and operational jurisdictions, continuing the growth it has seen since returning to the market.

Campbell Smyth
Chief Executive Officer
+61 2 8115 5167
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Todd Lawler
Managing Director Treasury and Funding
+61 407 073 537
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www.bluestone.com.au