Sale of 11th-Largest Servicer Nixed

PHH Corp. -- which controls the nation's 11th-largest residential servicer -- has called off its sale to General Electric, which had planned to flip the mortgage and fleet lender to The Blackstone Group, an investment banking firm.Back in September, Blackstone first admitted that it was having trouble securing enough debt financing to complete the deal. The publicly traded PHH Corp. owns PHH Mortgage, Mt. Laurel, N.J., a nondepository that has a bank affiliate. In a Jan. 2 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, PHH said it had called off the sale because GE could not complete the transaction by year's end. PHH is now seeking a $50 million termination fee from Blackstone. PHH can be found online at http://www.phh.com.