Ex-CEO of WMC Buys Servicers, Originator

Amy Brandt, who was the chief executive officer of WMC Mortgage Co. during that alternative-A lender's salad days, has returned to the industry by buying two servicers and an Internet originator. Vantium Capital Inc., her private-equity firm, was planning to announce that it has acquired the assets of Strategic Recovery Group LLC, a Plano, Texas-based company that collects on defaulted and charged-off debts; its Acqura Loan Services LLC, which manages subprime portfolios; and Strategic Recovery's online-only lending business, which uses the brand name Go Financial Solutions. Vantium, a New York company, would not make executives available for interviews. In a press release, Ms. Brandt said, "We will use these companies as a platform to develop, or acquire, new businesses that will serve the financial and investment markets." The firm did not say how much it paid for any of the assets. It has financial backing from Leon Black's Apollo Global Management LLC, the New York private-equity firm that sold WMC Mortgage to General Electric Co. in 2004. Acqura is to service assets bought by a Vantium fund managed by Michael Commaroto, the former head of private-label mortgage-backed securities at Deutsche Bank AG, Vantium said.