Date: 30 September 2022

It’s hard to believe we are into the final quarter of the year and summer is just around the corner. It’s been ‘business as unusual’ over the last two years due to Covid but we’re pleased that some normality is returning. As a business we’ve continued to experience steady growth in both our investment funds and across our loan book. But first things first – investor returns.

I am very pleased to advise that we are delivering an annualised pre-tax return of 5.59% for the September quarter. Like every business we have experienced disruption through winter flu and covid related illness. I am incredibly proud of our team who pulled together to deliver this result.

We are also operating in a challenging economic environment. As an active manager we are constantly reviewing the market and how our loan  portfolio is performing against this backdrop. I am pleased to say that all of our key metrics such as loan to value ratio (LVR), liquidity and loan arrears remain strong. Our loan arrears are still below our 5 year average. This is an impressive result given the market conditions and demonstrates our commitment to balancing risk and return.

Consistent returns

You will no doubt be aware of the volatility in other asset classes over the last year. At FMT we are really pleased that we continued to maintain a steady performance and we have even managed to increase our rates each quarter this year. These rates show the resilience of the Fund, and our commitment to providing investors with peace of mind investing and consistent returns even during periods of uncertainty.

Whilst there has been talk of increased bank lending appetite this hasn’t changed our loan origination opportunities and we continue to see a strong pipeline of high quality loans. The average LVR on our loan book has remained at 51% and our LVR for loans originated in the last 6 months remains at around 48%.

We are selective in where and who we lend to, and we have a rigorous process, including inspecting every property we lend on. It is this approach which has seen our loan portfolio continue to perform strongly. Our team takes the time to understand every loan we approve, for us this means working alongside our borrowing clients to deliver a personalised, tailored solution which in turn delivers better outcomes for both our borrowers  and our investors.

New milestone reached

As I mentioned earlier, we are continuing to see growth in our funds: in July we reached a new milestone of $1.5 billion of funds under  management and we welcomed our 6,000th First Mortgage Trust investor. In challenging economic times this highlights how our investors value investments derived from first mortgage securities and the stability of the returns that First Mortgage Trust provides.

As we grow, I firmly believe it’s important for us to stay true to our roots and to remain focused on what has made us successful for the last 26 years – our conservative investment strategy – which is doing what we can to protect and grow our clients’ investments, and of course making sure we provide great customer service along the way.

I look forward to catching up with many of you in person at our upcoming Investor Meetings, and for those of you who are unable to attend we will be filming one of the events, as well as providing more information in our next newsletter.

In the meantime, thank you for your continued support.

Paul Bendall

CEO

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