Impac Buying Pinnacle, a $5B Funder

Impac Funding Corp., Irvine, Calif., has agreed to buy Pinnacle Financial Corp. of Florida, a $5 billion-a-year funder that plays in both the conventional and alternative-A markets.No purchase price was disclosed. In years past, Pinnacle, a retailer, had been selling alt-A loans to IFC on a correspondent basis. IFC, a subsidiary of a publicly traded real estate investment trust, is the nation's 10th-largest alt-A funder, according to figures compiled by the Alternative Products Quarterly Data Report. The sale was brokered by Milestone Merchant Partners. Pinnacle operates 133 branches in 26 states. It was founded in 1988 by Douglas L. Long and Jeffrey Vratanina. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.impaccompanies.com and http://www.pinnaclefinancial.com.