Walter Investment Management Corp. (WAC), a real estate investment trust (REIT), completed the purchase of a pool of residential first lien mortgages for approximately $8.6m. The acquisition comes as REIT transactions are picking up after a five-year lull. Tampa-based Walter Investment is an asset manager, mortgage servicer and mortgage portfolio owner specializing in less-than-prime, non-conforming and other credit-challenged mortgage assets. It currently has $1.9bn of assets under management and annual revenue of $190m. The proceeds for the purchase came from a recent equity offering, the company said. “We are pleased to complete our second purchase transaction of residential loans using the proceeds from our equity offering,” said Mark O’Brien, Walter Investment’s chairman and CEO. “This pool has very similar loan and demographic characteristics to our first purchase and to our existing residential loan portfolio.” The pool of mortgages consists of performing, fixed-rate mortgages on single-family, owner-occupied residences located within the Walter Investments existing southeastern United States geographic footprint, which includes Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas. “We believe it is representative of other assets currently available in the market that can also benefit from the expertise of our high-touch servicing platform,” O’Brien said. “We anticipate that we will continue to add assets to our portfolio within a reasonable timeframe which meet our strict standards for investment.” Write to Austin Kilgore. The author held no relevant investments.
