New Residential Investment Corp. is acquiring PHH Mortgage Corp.‘s entire mortgage servicing rights (MSR) portfolio for about $612 million.
The portfolio, which has about $72 billion in unpaid principal balance, consists of a mix of seasoned agency and private-label MSRs.
In addition, New Residential will purchase approximately $300 million of servicer advances from PHH Mortgage.
In effect, PHH will become a subservicer for New Residential. As per the deal between the two companies, PHH will subservice the 480,000 loans underlying the MSRs to be acquired for an initial period of three years, subject to certain termination provisions.
In a statement, Michael Nierenberg, chairman and CEO of New Residential, says the acquisition is in keeping with the firm’s growth strategy. He says he looks forward to working closely with PHH, which “will be a great addition to our network of servicing partners.”
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2017. However, it is still subject to shareholder approval, as well as final approval from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the usual regulatory bodies.
The deal excludes the Ginnie Mae MSRs and related servicing advances that were part of the sale transaction PHH announced in November. At that time, PHH announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to sell substantially all of its Ginnie Mae MSR portfolio and related servicing advances to Lakeview Loan Servicing.
In a release, PHH says its MSR-related hedges, including those related to Ginnie Mae MSRs, have experienced aggregate realized and unrealized losses of approximately $135 million during the fourth quarter to date, and the company expects to terminate its related hedge positions in conjunction with the signing of the deal.
Glen A. Messina, president and CEO of PHH, says the transaction is “an important next step in our strategic review process and enables PHH to efficiently monetize its remaining owned MSR portfolio at the highest available price, while maintaining the flexibility to maximize the value of our subservicing platform.”
“We are continuing to evaluate the strategic options for our remaining business platforms and remain on track to complete the strategic review by the end of January 2017,” Messina adds.