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Hallo, Netbanks CEO Douglas Freeman verfolgt m. E. eine interessante Strategie beim Kreditgeschaeft: 1. NTBK bietet kleinen Regionalbanken eine Plattform fuer Privatkundenkredite, welche diese selbst nicht vergeben koennten 2. NTBK reicht die Kredite von seiner Plattform aus weiter (Risikooptimierung) anstatt aufgeblaehte Volumina zu erzeugen. Daraus folgere ich wachsendes Geschaeft bei einer konstanten und risikoarmen (wenn auch geringeren) Gewinnmarge; was momentan in den USA oberste Prioritaet hat (wg. hoher Konsumentenverschuldung). Lest selbst: Financial Making Internet Banking Pay Bernard Condon, 02.18.03, 7:00 AM ET NEW YORK - NetBank Chief Executive Douglas Freeman says that even if demand for home loans falls off a cliff, as many expect, he`ll still manage to grow profits 40% this year. He`ll just raid giants like Bank of America and Wells Fargo for more customers. Far fetched? You`re not the only one who thinks so. Shares of NetBank (nasdaq: NTBK - news - people ) have barely budged for three years. What`s more, its financials don`t lack for trouble spots. But Freeman has made some interesting moves since taking over in April. Under a new alliance with community banks, which typically don`t extend home loans to their customers, NetBank is offering the small fry the banking equivalent of steroids: a way to bulk up on the cheap. Freeman will make home loans under their names so they don`t have to refer customers to the competition. The banks can pretend they`re just as sophisticated as BofA (nyse: BAC - news - people ) and Wells (nyse: WFC - news - people ) across town. So far 385 banks have signed up for the program. NetBank pockets a fee, and quickly sells the loan to investors. That last part is important. Freeman, 52, wants to take the idea of an Internet bank to the extreme: Eschewing both tangible assets, like branches, and intangible ones, like loans. If Freeman kept the loans on NetBank`s books, its $3.6 billion in assets soon would balloon past the $4 billion or so he has set as an upper limit. Instead of growing earnings by growing assets, he plans to act as financial intermediary, selling as he goes along. He will forgo interest income from loans in favor of fees. In essence, Freeman wants to do with home loans what credit card processors TSYS (nyse: TSS - news - people ) and First Data (nyse: FDC - news - people ) did with plastic: Offering a marketing ploy for small banks, which have their names on credit cards, in exchange for a predictable earnings. Freeman has a long way to go. Alpharetta, Ga.-based NetBank made $15 billion of mortgage loans in its own name last year; its small town bank partners provided only $192 million of loans to it. But Freeman sticking to closely to the script: NetBank has been selling off its own loans quickly. It turned its assets over five times in the last quarter on an annual basis; most banks don`t turn assets over even once a year. "This industry has been too focused on size," Freeman says. "It`s like an arms race. Once you say you`re going to get big, there`s not stopping." He knows of what he speaks. In the 1980s, Freeman worked at Wells Fargo where he reported to legendary CEO Carl Reichart, who drew praise from Warren Buffett and investment dollars from Berkshire Hathaway (nyse: BRK.A - news - people ). Then Freeman jumped to Barnett Banks of Jacksonville, Fla. where he ran consumer lending and figured he had a "pretty good shot" at the top job. He never got to find out. In 1998, Barnett was sold to NationsBank, a serial acquirer run by a well-known practitioner of "bigger is better" theory: Hugh McColl. Freeman ran consumer lending there and at Bank of America, the name NationsBank assumed when it later bought the San Francisco-based bank. Freeman took over mortgage lender Resource Bancshares Mortgage Group in January 2000, driving its stock up to $12 a share from $3 in two years. At which point he sold it to NetBank, whose share had moved in the opposite direction: to $8 from $78. He got a premium for Resources shares and, more unusual for a seller, the top job at the combined company. Internet banks are great at gathering deposits but awful at putting them to profitable use. They mostly end up buying loans, leaving the important process of screening the borrower to the seller. NetBank was no exception. It had lured plenty of depositors with high interest rates. (It now has 150,000 retail customers in 50 states thanks to checking accounts earning 1.5% annually. The average bank pays 0.32%.) But it bought some lousy loans. It recently had to add $20 million to reserves because of some bum paper it had bought from an equipment lessor. Freeman says he`s putting depositors money to better use. Shortly after agreeing to sell, he got the Independent Community Bankers Association, which represents 5,000 banks, to switch its mortgage outsourcing contract from Cendant (nyse: CD - news - people ) to NetBank. Then he sold much of NetBank`s commercial loans. He also bought an online insurance broker so he can sell that product to depositors, too. He says he plans to the get his average customer using four NetBank products, up from 1.5 today. One day his community bankers may provide most of NetBank`s mortgage customers but now it has get them itself, and its performance is less than inspiring. Delinquent loans were 3% of assets last quarter, up from 2.2% in April when Freeman took over. Reserves cover 37% of nonperforming assets, compared with 100% or more for most banks. One reason: NetBank`s provision for those dud commercial gear leases is only a quarter of the company`s total exposure. Freeman says he`s confident that the recent boost to reserves will prove adequate. Before charges from the Resource deal, NetBank earned $30 million last year, or 68 cents a share. The ten analysts covering the company expect it to earn 96 cents this year. That`s a 40% jump, which will be tough if mortgage volume falls. Freeman says NetBank`s volume could drop as much as 30% if interest rates begin to rise and the refinancing boom that has benefited so many U.S. lenders comes to end. That may not be worrying Freeman but it has sure got investors jittery. Which explains why he was attracted to the idea of turning a lender into a processor in the first place. TSYS and First Data are trading at 20 and 17 times forward earnings, respectively. NetBank, which closed Friday at $10.15, trades at 10 times. Quelle: http://www.forbes.com/2003/02/18/cz_bc_0218netbank.html?part… |
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| aus der Diskussion: | Neue Fakten zu Netbank (NTBK - 907126) |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | Nase_weis_nix (07.03.03 11:19:12) |
| Beitrag: | 3 von 3 (ID:8821322) |
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