Popular Sells $194M in MH Loans

Popular Inc., San Juan, Puerto Rico, has sold manufactured housing loans held by its U.S. mortgage subsidiary Popular Financial Holdings to 21st Mortgage Corp. and Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance Inc.. Popular said the transaction would yield $194 million in cash, but the company would still take a pretax loss of $70 million on the transaction. Richard L. Carrion, Popular's president and chief executive, said the agreement "builds on previous actions we have taken to exit nonstrategic markets and strengthen our balance sheet. We still have work to do and will communicate future actions once completed." Previously Popular entered into an agreement with Goldman Sachs to sell PFH's mortgage loans and servicing assets in a transaction that would bring the company $700 million. These two deals, along with $250 million from an issuance of floating-rate notes and $650 million of cash and investments, will give Popular $1.8 billion in liquidity, more than the amount of debt coming due for the remainder of this year and next. The ultimate parent of both 21st Mortgage and Vanderbilt is Berkshire Hathaway, Omaha, Neb.