STATE

Ocwen plans to sell $25B portfolio to Nationstar

Staff Writer
Athens Banner-Herald

ATLANTA (AP) - Ocwen Financial plans to sell a portfolio of approximately $25 billion in mortgage servicing rights to a subsidiary of Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc.

The portfolio includes about 142,000 loans owned by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Atlanta-based Ocwen Financial Corp. had announced a month ago that it planned to sell an approximately $9.8 billion portfolio of mortgage servicing rights to Nationstar, which is based in Dallas.

Ocwen said the sale of the $25 billion portfolio is expected to close before the middle of the year. It needs approval from Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The latest portfolio sale plan was announced one day after the financial services holding company said that it received notice that it is not in compliance with continued listing standards for the New York Stock Exchange because it did not file its annual financial results in a timely manner.

Earlier this month Ocwen disclosed in a regulatory filing that it would need additional time and expected to file the financial results on March 17. The company said it was unable to file the financial results by that date and is unable to provide a new date that it expects to file the results.

Its shares dropped 45 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $8.35 in premarket trading about an hour ahead of the market opening.