Prudential Mortgage Capital Co. will acquire The WMF Group Ltd. in a transaction valued at $138 million. The deal includes all of WMF's subsidiaries. According to Prudential, acquiring WMF will give the company one of the most comprehensive product lines in the commercial mortgage industry.
Ann Logan, executive vice president for single-family mortgages at Fannie Mae, is leaving the company. She will be replaced by Louis Hoyes, currently senior vice president for multifamily lending and investment. Also, Fannie Mae appointed Thomas Donilon executive vice president for law and policy, Ann Kappler to senior vice president and general counsel and Kenneth Bacon to senior vice president for multifamily lending and investment.
UBS Warburg has hired Caroline Philips as a director in the London office of its principal finance group. She comes from Greenwich NatWest, and will be responsible for driving real estate and commercial mortgage-backed securities related opportunities in Europe.
Finova Realty Capital is exiting the business of originating commercial mortgage loans for sale into commercial mortgage-backed securities. This is a result of the company ending its preferred partner program with J.P. Morgan. Its bridge and mezzanine debt financing activities will continue despite the closing of its CMBS conduit program, though.
John Gibbons, formerly chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, joined the board of directors of Ultraprise Corporation. Gibbons' career spans more than 15 years as a participant in the evolution of the capital markets, including nearly a decade at Freddie Mac. He left the GSE earlier this year to take an active role in the ongoing evolution of the financial services industry by guiding Internet technology leaders.
Frank Collins, a former head trader and senior managing director at Bear, Stearns & Co., is setting up a hedge fund to invest in asset-backed securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities and jumbo mortgages. As many as four people will be hired, specifically asset-backed veterans, to help run the Bear Stearns Asset-Backed Securities Partners.
The California state Senate's Committee on finance, investment and international trade unanimously approved a predatory lending bill. Having members from the mortgage lender and broker sectors, a task force would be charged with holding public hearings and reporting back its recommendations for combating predatory lending by next May.
