A pair of mortgage companies owned by affiliates of Lone Star Funds, originator Caliber Funding LLC and servicer Vericrest Financial Inc., have agreed to combine operations to create a full-service mortgage banker. Lone Star will remain as the owner of the combined company.
Terms of the deal were not announced. The transaction is expected to close in the next four to six months.
In a press release, Jim Ferriter, president of Caliber, said, "Loan originations and servicing are a natural fit, and we expect the combined company will generate significant revenue opportunities to support continued growth. We are looking forward to working with Vericrest's talented team of professionals and to building a larger, more diverse organization that offers greater opportunities to our customers, employees and investors."
Ferriter became president of Caliber in July 2012 after
Neither company is commenting beyond what was in the press release at this time.
Ferriter’s counterpart at Vericrest, CEO David Schneider, added, "Until recently, Vericrest only offered servicing solutions to affiliates of Lone Star. Since offering our unique, proactive mortgage servicing solutions to other investors, we have experienced significant growth.”
At the end of November, Vericrest signed a deal
“Caliber's innovative lending platform is a perfect complement to our servicing business and will enable us to refinance and retain loans in our loan servicing portfolio, as well as retain servicing rights on the loans Caliber originates,” Schneider said.
Vericrest's servicing portfolio consists of approximately 55,600 mortgage loans with an outstanding principal balance of $10.1 billion. Caliber is averaging originations of $656 million a month.
