Redwood Trust Inc. has completed the previously announced acquisition of Riverbend Funding LLC and its subsidiaries (Riverbend), a private mortgage lender to residential transitional and commercial real estate investors, in an all-cash transaction.
The addition of Riverbend complements Redwood’s existing business purpose mortgage banking platform, CoreVest American Finance Lender LLC. In particular, the Riverbend platform adds single asset bridge origination and distribution to CoreVest’s existing product offering. Riverbend employees and operations will be integrated into CoreVest. Emilian Halloran and Sean Robbins, co-founders of Riverbend, will continue to lead the business following the closing as managing directors overseeing the single asset bridge product.
“We are excited to announce the close of this acquisition and formally welcome the Riverbend team,” says Christopher Abate, CEO of Redwood. “We have long believed in the high-quality opportunity that exists for Redwood in the business purpose lending market and this acquisition further emphasizes our deep commitment to growing and operating a best-in-class business purpose lending platform. As we described when we announced the acquisition of Riverbend, we also continue to believe, especially amidst this higher rate environment, that our investment portfolio and operating revenues will further benefit from Riverbend’s bridge product and fee-based revenues.”
“We continue to be very enthusiastic about the opportunity for this platform within our existing CoreVest business,” states Beth O’Brien, CEO of CoreVest. “We look forward to continuing to deliver high quality execution to our new and existing clients and growing our market share with our broad product set.”
“As we enter this next stage of growth, we are excited to partner with the dedicated teams at Redwood and CoreVest,” adds Emilian Halloran, co-founder of Riverbend. “The strong capital base, efficient operating platform, deep client network and extensive product set will allow us to scale our originations and financing efforts.” JMP Securities, A Citizens Company, served as exclusive financial advisor to Redwood in connection with the transaction. Riverbend was advised by Piper Sandler. Mayer Brown LLP acted as legal advisor to Redwood.
