The Farmers hire purchase and credit card business in New Zealand has found a buyer at last.James Pascoe Limited (a jewellery retailer in Australia and New Zealand), will buy Farmers Holdings Ltd from Foodland for NZ$311 million. The sale achieves Foodland's goal of quitting the department store sector in New Zealand, and being free to concentrate on its supermarkets in Australia and New Zealand.Farmers will be split in two, with Fisher & Paykel Appliance Holdings buying the Farmers Card and financing arm, while James Pacoe will own and operate the Farmers department store chain.F&P will pay NZ$188.7 million to James Pascoe for the financing business, or about seven times EBITDA of between NZ$24 million and NZ$28 million. The purchase is funded entirely by debt. F&P will also enter into a 20 year deal with JPL to supply financial services on an exclusive basis, including exclusivity of the Farmers card.Fisher & Paykel said that the Farmers finance business has consumer finance receivables of around $NZ$300 million, with more than 500,000 active customer accounts, of which 350,000 are holders of the Farmers Card.The Farmers business is struggling to grow receivables. Foodland said a few weeks ago that receivables within the Farmers book declined in the last half, to A$265 million at August 2003 (or about NZ$297 million), down from A$283 million at February 2003, but up from A$252 million at August 2002. The growth in receivables of five per cent compares with system growth in credit card receivables in New Zealand of seven per cent in the year to August.The managing director of Fisher & Paykel Finance, Alistair Macfarlane, did not return this journal's calls, but did tell the New Zealand Herald that F&P's aim was to increase the reasons for consumers to use the Farmers card, and that plans included offering incentives for consumers to use the Farmers card and promoting its use through third party outlets such as supermarkets. No doubt another object for F&P is to defend Farmers as a sales channel for its whitegoods, where F&P is a preferred supplier.