Founder of RAMS Home Loans John Kinghorn is returning to the home loans industry, with the news he is involved with plans to expand LJ Hooker Home Loans, which he controls alongside other former RAMS executives.
The new plans for LJ Hooker Home Loans include the setting up of its own funding vehicle to finance its loans. At present, it has a loan book of $5 billion with lenders
NAB and Macquarie.
Kinghorn has been on the board of LJ Hooker Home Loans since October 2015, when former RAMS chief executive Glen Goddard also joined. Also on the board is Paul O’Regan, another former RAMS executive who is LJ Hooker Home Loans’ chief operating officer.
The company was a subsidiary of real estate agency LJ Hooker until the middle of last year. The current ownership of the business is unclear but it is thought that Kinghorn holds a majority.
RAMS nearly collapsed in 2007 when it could not refinance $6 billion of short-term debt on the international market, while in July last year Kinghorn was cleared of corrupt conduct in New South Wales after ICAC made a corruption finding against him.
Of the new developments with LJ Hooker Home Loans, O’Regan said the organisation was, “looking at a restructure and a different business model.”
He added, “We’re hoping within the next six months that we’ll be able to have a call-out line about where we’ll be going in the future, how we’ll be looking from a product point of view.
