Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. is unloading its wholesale lending business. But mortgage brokers will still have access to the unit.
Out of the $10.5 billion originated by subsidiary Nationstar Mortgage LLC during the first half of this year, $3.26 billion was generated through the wholesale channel.
But the Lewisville, Texas-based company is narrowing its focus on mortgage production to the consumer direct and correspondent lending channels.
So it has agreed to sell the wholesale business to Stonegate Mortgage Corp., according to an announcement Thursday.
Indianapolis-based Stonegate said that it has entered into a binding letter of intent to acquire Nationstar’s wholesale lending channel. The deal also calls for Stonegate to purchase certain distributed retail assets of Nationstar.
Some of Nationstar’s wholesale lending employees will be offered employment at Stonegate.
Wholesale originations at Stonegate accounted for $0.8 billion of its $4.0 billion in total production during the first six months of 2013.
“This acquisition enables us to further drive retail originations and serve an even larger group of mortgage brokers through our wholesale channel,” Stonegate Chief Executive Officer Jim Cutillo said in the announcement.
Stonegate completed an initial public offering last month that was expected to generate at least $136 million, and Cutillo noted in today’s statement that the Nationstar transaction “is one of a number of key initiatives that will help drive near and long-term shareholder value.”
Nationstar CEOÂ Jay Bray was quoted in Thursday’s announcement as saying, “The transaction also fits well within Nationstar’s strategic focus on servicing, Solutionstar, consumer direct originations and correspondent.”
