Nationstar Mortgage Closes Servicing Rights Deal With Aurora

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. has announced that Nationstar Mortgage LLC, an indirectly-held, wholly-owned subsidiary, has completed the acquisition of approximately $63.7 billion in residential mortgage servicing rights (MSRs), as measured by unpaid principal balance, and certain other assets from Aurora Bank FSB and its wholly owned subsidiary Aurora Loan Services LLC, a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers Bancorp Inc. The composition of the Aurora portfolio is approximately 75 percent non-conforming loans in private label securitizations and approximately 25 percent conforming loans in government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) pools. With this acquisition, Nationstar has grown its servicing book to approximately $177 billion, representing approximately one million customers. Nationstar funded a portion of the MSR purchase price with the proceeds of a 65 percent co-investment by Newcastle Investment Corp. “The closing of the Aurora acquisition represents another exciting milestone in Nationstar’s history and adds to our track record of successfully integrating servicing portfolios,” said Nationstar Chief Executive Officer Jay Bray. “We remain focused on our performance-based servicing model that provides exceptional service and the benefit of Nationstar’s extensive resources to help customers achieve and preserve homeownership.” Keefe Bruyette & Woods, Inc. and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. served as financial advisors to Aurora. Sidley Austin LLP served as legal advisor to Nationstar Mortgage LLC and Arnold & Porter LLP served as legal advisor to Aurora.