Shareholders of Nationstar Mortgage, Inc. (NYSE: NSM) and WMIH Corp. (Nasdaq: WMIH) — the successor company to former banking giant Washington Mutual — on Friday signed off on the two firms’ merger agreement.
Nationstar approved its end of the deal with 93% of eligible shares in agreement, while 80% of WMIH’s eligible shares were voted to green-light the transaction.
First announced in February, the nearly $4 billion deal will see Nationstar emerge as the nominal survivor, with Jay Bray remaining as CEO and the combined firm retaining Nationstar’s headquarters in North Texas. However, Nationstar will technically be a wholly owned subsidiary of WMIH, and the company will retain the WMIH ticker symbol on the Nasdaq.
“We look forward to closing the transaction and expect it will be value-enhancing for WMIH stockholders,” WMIH CEO William Gallagher said in a statement announcing the deal.
Nationstar last year rolled out an aggressive rebrand of its forward mortgage origination business, dubbing it “Mr. Cooper”; the name change did not affect its Champion Home Equity Conversion Mortgage arm.
“We expect this merger to create value for Nationstar’s stockholders both in the near- and long-term as we continue to accelerate growth by leveraging our best-in-class integrated servicing and originations platform and further enhancing the customer experience through innovation and service,” Bray said in a statement.
NSM stock slid slightly, closing out Friday’s trading at $17.53 per share — down $0.05, or 0.28%. WMIH stock stayed flat at $1.34.
Written by Alex Spanko
