Marlin Mortgage Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Marlin Manager LLC, said Thursday it has entered into a letter of intent to acquire 100% of the outstanding equity of LoanFront LLC.
Neither the terms of the transaction nor when it is expected to be completed were disclosed. The proposed deal is also subject to financial and regulatory approvals.
LoanFront, based in Hazlet, N.J., is a direct-to-consumer mortgage lender founded in late 2021.
Established in 2019, Saint Petersburg, Fla.-based Marlin Mortgage was created to serve as a clearing platform for buying and selling residential mortgage servicing rights, the company said. Its platform provides institutional investors with the virtual access to the skills and tools required to own an MSR asset, while minimizing the operational liabilities associated with ownership, control, and regulatory compliance, the company said.
As of Sept. 30, Marlin said, it owns approximately $45 billion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MSRs and, through Marlin Manager, manages $600 million of institutional investor capital commitments.
"The LoanFront acquisition serves a few strategic milestones: adding internal capabilities for retention efforts of the approximate 130,000 existing Marlin borrowers and access to an existing platform to assist in our planned expansion into Ginnie Mae MSR,” said Andrew Weber, Marlin Mortgage CEO. “(LoanFront CEO) Steve Stone will stay on to lead such efforts; we’ve been impressed with what he and his team have achieved in such a short timeframe.”
Weber added that the acquisition “demonstrates our ability to expand into a business segment where most are exiting.”
“Joining the Marlin team was a no-brainer for LoanFront,” Stone said. “Andrew Weber and his team have built an extremely impressive platform that we are thrilled to be a part of. We are confident that our team will make a great addition and add immediate value. We are excited to be a key player in Marlin’s exponential growth, and the positive impact they make on the mortgage industry as a whole.”
