It began with a loan of £3000...

Press, 5 July 1983, Page 27

It began with a loan of £3000...

BROADBANK today has assets of more than $530 million but its beginnings were humble. The story began in 1953 when an Auckland chartered accountant Mr Les Hay was persuaded by one of his clients to start a small car finance company.

Mr Hay borrowed £3OOO on the security of his house and formed the company. It did good business, establishing that there was a demand for hire purchase and loan money.

As business increased, several name changes occurred with restructuring until, in 1964, the company emerged as Broadlands Investment Group Limited and its shares were listed on the Stock Exchange. The name Broadlands came from a Nelson orchard, owned by Mr Hay’s father-in-law. In 1968, Broadlands merged with the Christchurchbased Dominion Finance Holdings Limited, substantially increasing the group’s assets and strengthening business in the South Island. The new company was known as Broadlands Dominion Group Limited. A merchant banking arm, Broadbank was formed in 1971 after the formation of a partnership with Wells Fargo Bank International Corporation of San Francis-

co. _ Broadlands became a partner in the strongest finance company in the country when it acquired the shares of Challenge Finance Limited and was then taken over by Challenge Corporation in 1980. The new company, Broadlands Finance Limited, held investments of about $200,000,000 and had 52,000 clients. Broadlands and Broadbank continued as market leaders in their fields. In March 1983, by now under the wing of the Finance and Computer Sector of Fletcher Challenge Limited, the companies were merged to provide a strong, united operation which offers a wide range of financial services to its customers. Broadbank Corporation Limited has eight area offices and 27 branch offices throughout New Zealand. It employs a staff of 470 and is represented in smaller centres by a network .of 54 agents. .