Flowers Affiliates Sell Green Tree Holdings

Affiliates of J.C. Flowers I LLP (known as JCF CFN LLC) have sold their holdings in Green Tree Investment Holdings LLC, which is the former Conseco Finance manufactured housing unit, to an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC.Flowers, Fortress, and Cerberus Capital Management LP teamed up to acquire the manufactured housing unit in a bankruptcy court auction approximately one year ago with a bid of $1.1 billion. Among the selling members of JCF CFN are The Enstar Group Inc. and Castlewood Holdings Ltd. J. Christopher Flowers, a Montgomery, Ala., investor, indirectly controls the JCF CFN entities. The sellers invested $25 million to get a 3.995% interest in Green Tree, of which Enstar provided $15 million and Castlewood $10 million. Total consideration for the stake is $40 million, of which Enstar will get $24 million and Castlewood $16 million. Separately, Conseco Inc., the former owner of Conseco Finance, said it has entered into a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Conseco has consented to a cease-and-desist order, but will not have to pay any fines or other monetary penalties, nor will it have to restate any financial statements. The investigation looked at how Conseco Finance accounted for its interest-only securities and servicing rights.