The acquisition of a mortgage banker that specializes in home loans to veterans will boost Wintrust Mortgage’s annual originations by nearly $1 billion and its servicing portfolio by more than $1 billion.
An announcement late Monday from parent Wintrust Financial Corp. indicated that a tentative agreement has been negotiated to acquire iFreedom Direct Corp., which does business as Veterans First Mortgage.
Rosemont, Illinois-based Wintrust Financial said that the proposed transaction has it acquiring
certain iFreedom assets and assuming some of its liabilities.
According to the announcement, Veterans First is projected to originate more than $0.8 billion during 2017, while it services around 9,000 loans with an aggregate unpaid principal balance of $1.4 billion.
Around 400
people are employed by Veterans First.
“Veterans First Mortgage specializes in VA lending, primarily for new home purchases, which is fairly unique to the consumer direct lending business,” the statement said.
Terms of the deal –which is subject to a definitive agreement, final due diligence and approval from mortgage regulators — were not disclosed. While no estimated closing date was mentioned, the transaction is expected to be slightly accretitive to Wintrust’s 2018 earnings.
