 John Fairfax Holdings Limited ACN 008 663 161 |
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16 February 2000 Westpac and f2 Limited in Online Alliance Westpac and f2, the Fairfax Interactive Network, today announced a three year multi-million dollar alliance which brings together two of Australia’s strongest online operations. The first initiative, starting in early March, 2000, will is to integrate Westpac’s online Home Loan Centre with f2’s leading real estate site, domain.com.au. Westpac will be the only home loan originator promoted on the site. . Westpac will be the only home loan originator promoted on the site, and By combining the Westpac and f2 content in this way, hwill provide complementary content on domain.com.au. Home buyers will have access to a total end to end package, from researching potential locations, finding a property and agent, applying for a loan and managing their loan - all online. The deal involves a profit share, joint marketing and , highly integrated branding and links, and shared transaction revenues, with the aim of to capturing e a substantial share of the online home loan origination market. The industry consensus is that up to 30 percent of home loans will be originated over the Internet by 2005. The deal also involves non-exclusive promotion of Westpac’s financial services across the f2 network of over 30 sites, which include drive.com.au, mycareer.com.au and tradingroom.com.au. Mr David Fite, Westpac’s Group Executive Banking and Financial Services Solutions, said: "We are excited about the opportunity to partner together to materially alter the online home buying market in Australia. The combination of f2’s industry leading content and Westpac’s award winning Internet services will deliver a substantially better experience for home buyers." He said: "The drawing power of the whole f2 network and domain.com.au in particular will allow Westpac to access a larger share of home buyers through the Internet, earlier in the buying process, with the resulting benefits shared between us. "All-in-all, our customers will enjoy superior service through a proposition that expands both f2’s and Westpac’s business opportunity: this is the power of the Internet." According to Nigel Dews, Chief Executive, f2 Limited, "An increasing number of people use the Internet to search for a home and to arrange their finances - bringing our services together makes a lot of sense. domain.com.au has experienced strong growth since its launch, and f2 is committed to making it the leading real estate site in Australia. "This agreement is a partnership which we believe will generate strong business for both organisations and shared e-commerce revenues. "There are strong synergies between us and we will use the experience of working together to consider further strategic opportunities in the future," he said. domain.com.au combines extensive property listings from Tthe Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and other Fairfax newspapers, CitySearch’s online business directory, comprehensive information, virtual tours, local demographics, financial information, powerful search functions, advice for buyers, sellers, renters and real estate agents. Westpac is re-engineering its business to maximise eBusiness opportunities and is a leading Australian online financial services provider, with over 180,000 online banking customers and a rapidly growing online share--trading business. Via the on-line Home Loan Centre, customers have comprehensive information about home loan finance and Westpac products, loan calculators, the ability to search for a property with the confidence of a Loan Entitlement Certificate, in-principleal loan approval within 24 hours, the ability to track the progress of an application and moving forward, to manage the loan on-line.
About f2 A wholly- owned subsidiary of John Fairfax Holdings Limited, f2 Limited, Fairfax Interactive Network, is building a strong position in e--commerce and is Australia’s leading provider of online content. The company’s extensive network of more than 30 sites attracts over 1.8 million page views per day (1.8 million visits per week).
Further information All Westpac announcements are posted at www.westpac.com.au/finnews/mediareleasearchive.cfm Lindy Yarnold Tim Williams |
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Fairfax > Corporate Affairs & Media Releases > Announcements >Westpac and f2 Limited in Online Alliance
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