Sanjiv Das, CEO of Caliber Home Loans, is stepping down as CEO of the company, less than one year after New Residential Investment Corp. (Newrez) acquired the mortgage lender and servicer, sources familiar with the situation confirmed.
In a memo sent Monday morning, Michael Nierenberg, CEO of New Residential Investment Corp., told employees that despite Das leaving, things will continue to be “business as usual.”
“Our entire leadership team remains the same and will continue to execute on our mission to be the best digital mortgage company,” Nierenberg said in the memo, which was reviewed by HousingWire.
Caliber, Das and Newrez did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Das, who has been the company’s CEO since 2016, formerly served as CEO of the Board for Citi Mortgage. Industry analysts and observers said it was always expected that Das would leave following the Newrez deal.
In April 2021, Newrez acquired Caliber, heavy-hitter across multiple origination channels, in a deal valued at $1.675 billion from Lonestar Funds, a hedge fund. In the memo, Nierenberg said that “integration efforts continue.”
In the third quarter of 2021, Newrez reported earnings of $177.5 million from July to September, up 136% quarter-over-quarter, with the growth mainly being spurred by the Caliber acquisition.
NRIC noted in their earnings that channel diversification and the combination of Caliber and Newrez LLC, the REITs other mortgage arm, propelled gain-on-sale margins by 30 basis points.
Caliber originated around $64 billion in mortgages from January to September 2021, an increase of 12% compared to the same period of 2020, making it the 13th-largest mortgage lender in the U.S., according to Inside Mortgage Finance. Newrez is ranked 10th, with $76 billion originated in the same period, an increase of 102%.
Prior to the agreement with Newrez, Lone Star Funds attempted to take Caliber public, but the independent public offering was unsuccessful due to instability in the market.
On the day that the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 943 points, Caliber made the decision to delay its initial public offering (IPO).The Caliber deal represented the splashiest acquisition to date for Nierenberg’s real estate investment trust. In 2019, NewRez acquired Ditech‘s forward origination and servicing business for $1.2 billion. The company also acquired Shellpoint Partners (the parent of New Penn Financial) in 2018 for $190 million.
