Long Beach Makes $1B Forward Sale

Long Beach Financial Corp., Orange, Calif., has made a $1 billion forward sale of its mortgage production for the rest of this year and into the first quarter of 1999 to an unnamed Wall Street investment banking firm.The company is making the sale on a servicing-retained basis. By keeping the servicing rights, Long Beach said it is looking to "significantly enhance and jump-start the development of the company's new servicing platform." This is the first sale between Long Beach and the investment bank involved, said M. Jack Mayesh, chairman and chief executive of the subprime originator. "We are doubly pleased that our strategy of forward sales for cash minimizes our need for dilutive capital-raising, and delivers what we believe are superior returns to our shareholders," he added.