Redwood Trust Inc. says its has completed the previously announced acquisition of Riverbend Funding LLC, a private mortgage lender to residential transitional and commercial real estate investors, in an all cash transaction on Tuesday.
The transaction, which initially was announced on April 28, includes Redwood acquiring all of Riverbend’s subsidiaries.
“We are excited to announce the close of this acquisition and formally welcome the Riverbend team,” said Christopher Abate, chief executive officer of Redwood. “We have long believed in the high-quality opportunity that exists for Redwood in the business purpose lending market and this acquisition further emphasizes our deep commitment to growing and operating a best-in-class business purpose lending platform."
He continued, "As we described when we announced the acquisition of Riverbend, we also continue to believe, especially amidst this higher rate environment, that our investment portfolio and operating revenues will further benefit from Riverbend’s bridge product and fee-based revenues.”
Redwood’s existing business purpose mortgage banking platform, CoreVest American Finance Lender LLC, parallels directly with Riverbend’s mortgage banking platform, which is predicted to enhance CoreVest’s suite of products, geographic, and production footprint, and client base. Riverbend’s platform adds single asset bridge origination and distribution to CoreVest’s existing product offering, the company said.
Redwood stated that Riverbend employees and operations will be integrated into CoreVest. Riverbend co-founders Emilian Halloran and Sean Robbins will continue to lead as managing directors overseeing the single-asset bridge product.
“As we enter this next stage of growth, we are excited to partner with the dedicated teams at Redwood and CoreVest,” Halloran said. “The strong capital base, efficient operating platform, deep client network, and extensive product set will allow us to scale our originations and financing efforts.”
