Rice Park acquires Rosegate Mortgage in recapture push

Private investment firm Rice Park Capital Management will acquire a retail and consumer-direct lender one year after the two businesses signed an initial partnership agreement. 

As in several recent mergers, the servicing pipeline potential figured prominently behind the Minneapolis-based financial firm's decision to acquire Rosegate Mortgage. Rice Park specializes in mortgage servicing rights, with the two companies first inking a deal in October 2024 for the investment firm to help provide financing for Rosegate borrowers. 

"Acquiring Rosegate enables us to offer a fully integrated mortgage investment platform that we believe enhances value for our investors through improved servicing retention and strategic recapture," said Craig Freel, Rice Park president and co-chief investment officer, in a press release.

Rice Park's MSR portfolio currently holds approximately $61 billion in unpaid balance, serviced through subsidiary Nexus Nova. The merger will combine operations of Nexus Nova and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Rosegate into a single business entity within the larger Rice Park organizational structure. Other financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We're thrilled to be integrated with Rice Park and are excited to build out what we believe will be a high-quality servicing retention and recapture model," Rosegate Mortgage President and CEO Bryce Bradley added.

"Now within the Rice Park family, we are able to introduce ourselves to more customers," Bradley continued, "while continuing to enhance our organization and grow both the consumer-direct and retail lending channels."

The addition of Rosegate will lead Rice Park to "selectively perform recapture across its MSR holdings" that will generate optimal returns and mitigate prepayment risk, the investment firm said. While it offers recapture potential for the newly combined company, Rice Park leaders emphasized they would continue to work with existing partners, who should see no changes in existing relationships. 

"Our platform is designed to offer flexibility — providing capital and MSR solutions that preserve and support our partners' customer relationships," Freel said. 

The changes mean Rice Park will adopt a dual-channel strategy. For its MSR acquisitions with existing recapture terms, it will continue to support and respect the partnerships. Rice Park will utilize Rosegate to pursue recapture directly on MSRs without an embedded recapture agreement.

Rosegate Mortgage will keep existing branding and continue to operate from its Charlotte home base. 

The recurring M&A theme of 2025

The Rice Park-Rosegate deal comes as the latest example of merger-and-acquisition activity driven by recapture pipelines in 2025. It arrives after the blockbuster merger between Rocket and Mr. Cooper led many mortgage lenders and servicing businesses to evaluate existing models and strategies in order to best capitalize on future business. 

In between the Rocket and current Rice Park deals, the mortgage industry has seen similar subsequent transactions combining established originations and servicing leaders, including the merger agreement between Bayview Asset Management and Guild Mortgage. 

The recapture potential and servicing book of Reliance First Capital also played a factor in its acquisition by Carrington Mortgage Services in late October.

Other recent M&A deals involve Union Home Mortgage and Anniemac Home Mortgage, both of which have acquired two lenders in 2025. 

News within the past two weeks also featured mergers between Maryland-based firms NFM Lending and Homespire Mortgage, as well as an agreement uniting Atlantic Coast Mortgage and Tidewater Mortgage Services.