M&A market heats up as mortgage lenders and vendors stage deals

Mortgage-related companies finalized four partnerships, a servicing-retention firm went up for sale, and a long-delayed insurance-related transaction moved forward this week in a wave of industry merger and acquisition activity.

Mortgage technology vendor Black Knight finalized its acquisition of Collateral Analytics, AboutMYMortgage announced plans to sell, purchase-loan marketing fintech Home Captain closed on its purchase of Redefy, and Genworth struck a deal with New York that could help it complete the pending sale of its mortgage and life insurance affiliate to China's Oceanwide Holdings.

Terms of the Black Knight and Home Captain deals were not disclosed.

AboutMYMortgage plans to sell its patented customer-retention method for a minimum asking price of $5 million. If by June 15 it receives an offer of $5 million or more, and other terms of that offer are acceptable, the company plans to sell to the highest bidder.

Genworth's agreement in principal with the New York Department of Financial Services establishes conditions aimed at facilitating a state-level re-approval it needs for the planned acquisition of the New York-domiciled insurance unit to move forward, but other approvals still must be obtained as well.

The mortgage vendor and insurance-related M&A developments occurred the same week Capital City Bank closed on its purchase of a majority stake in BrandMortgage and MVB Financial struck a deal to form of a joint venture with Intercoastal Mortgage.

They also occurred the same week the Fed announced a 50-basis-point short-term rate cut in an effort to counter capital markets concerns about the potential effect of the coronavirus on global supply chains.

The Fed action puts downward pressure on long-term rates that could be beneficial to the mortgage lenders and vendors that serve them if it's not undermined by supply-chain disruptions or retention and runoff challenges.