If any of you are interested, you can 'read all about it' on the rams website through the 'Shareholder Centre' portal.
As with anything, don't believe all that you hear. In fact, believe very little of what you hear. This is a very complex deal and the primary focus has been the benefit and wellbeing of the major stakeholders - and that primarily means the 78,000 Australians who have RAMS Home Loans.
The share issue was mainly taken up by institutional investors, and a small number of shares was made available to staff and franchisees if they were interested. Since the float, any shares bought or sold have been on the open market. As usual, caveat emptor applies.
2008 will be a very exciting year for RAMS and for RHG. The ongoing brand loyalty, which has always been unusually strong for such a small lender, continues unabated. Everybody loves Raymond and even with the uncertainty of recent months people with RAMS loans have remained loyal to the company and we continue to write and settle new business as usual.
Customers in the RHG book will have lost none of their benefits and flexibility and will continue to be serviced in the usual manner. The restriction on origination of new business is for a very reasonable three years. The whole deal is fair in the extreme, as you would expect from Australian’s first bank when dealing with another Australian company, which employs Australians and which lends to Australians. We are all neighbours.
I have read with great interest the wild conjecture of some of the posts regarding the future of this Australian company. Australians have a contempt of Tall Poppies but a love of the underdog. After the first few weeks when the popular press played 'kick the sheep' and somehow managed to mix most stories up into something akin to a Rogan Josh where it was impossible to distinguish the individual ingredients, people's reactions and assessment of the situation has returned to normal. Concerned, yes, eager to hear what is planned, yes, but alarmed and angry, no.
As a borrower, a shareholder and a franchisee I am very proud to be part of this moment in history. I have nothing but admiration for the many people who have built RAMS from, literally, nothing in 1996 to the thriving business it became in 2007. Many long standing customers have told me, with some emotion, that they would not have been able to buy their house ‘if it wasn’t for RAMS’.
So let us not be ‘knockers’, and if we don’t have a well informed opinion let us reserve our judgement. By this time next year the new arrangements will have become commonplace, the sky will not have fallen, people will have taken out new loans, bought houses, sold houses, laughed and cried, and we will all be a year older.
And never mind the ‘candle in the window’ – if you are driving through Mordialloc look out for the twenty pairs of slippers in the window. I tell you, Raymond has a lot to answer for!!!
Cheers
Kristine
