21 February 2003 12:00am

The business of underwriting home loan risk in Australia will become a purely US insurance company affair, with Radian Group reported to be on the verge of taking control of Royal & Sun Alliance Lenders Mortgage Insurance. The AFR puts the price at around $280 million, which is a narrow premium to the company's reported 2001 net assets of $270 million, but presumably at a discount to the so (so far undisclosed) profit for RSALMI in 2002.

Radian has been in the mortgage insurance business in the US since the late 1970s, and grown through acquisition over recent years. Most of...