Countrywide's stock crossed over the $50 a share threshold on Friday, just a tad shy of its 52-week high. The company is benefiting, in part, from takeover speculation. Now that Citigroup agreed to buy #13 originator Golden State Bancorp ( First Nationwide Mortgage is the mortgage sub there) gamblers, I mean investors, are betting that Countrywide is the next logical target. Sources note that Countrywide is not for sale. Analyst Mike McMahon of Sandler O'Neill believes the stock has risen lately because it's cheap. "If you want the premier mortgage banker in the country, Countrywide is it. This is a highly profitable company"...
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How's this for irony: Remember National Australia Bank, Melbourne, which sold HomeSide Lending to Wells Fargo in March but kept its residential receivables? (It wrote down the value of those receivables by $2.2 billion in the fall of 2001.) On its web site, NAB is bragging that it continues "to do well" in home lending -- home lending in Australia, that is. NAB hopes, some day, to sell the $171 billion in servicing that HomeSide has left. Cohane Rafferty Securities, White Plans, N.Y., has the task of unloading the asset...
Cohane deal maker Hilary Renz has left the company. A few months back Cohane was bought by Lehman Brothers. A Cohane official said Mr. Renz still does some consulting for the company. He could not be reached for comment& Last week we reported that Dan Rich had left subprime lender Champion Mortgage. We forgot to mention that he is now president of Home 1-2-3 Corp. in Morris Plains, N.J....
The American Enterprise Institute is holding yet another meeting on one of its favorite topics: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The date is June 12 in Power City U.S.A. (Washington). This time the subject is financial disclosures. AEI fellow Peter Wallison is MC-ing the event...
Short positions in Freddie Mac's stock rose by 9.5% in from mid-April to mid-May...
GMAC-RFC said it securitized $10.2 billion in ABS/MBS in the first quarter, a record& Subprime lender Delta Financial has filed a registration statement with the SEC to issue 1.5 million shares. The maximum offering price is 50 cents a share. The NYSE delisted Delta more than a year ago...
Despite the recession, delinquencies on residential loans have not spiked much, but credit card late payments are rising. Moreover, 58% of credit card holders had to pay some type of late fee during the past year...
