Option Granted To AMRESCO, Inc. To Terminate Ownership Of Mortgage Investors Corp.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Mortgage Investors Corp. ("MIC"), a national residential mortgage banking firm headquartered here, and its parent company, AMRESCO, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMMB), a diversified financial services company headquartered in Dallas, today jointly announced the granting to AMRESCO of an option to require MIC's original stockholders, led by William Edwards, to purchase 100 percent of the stock of MIC.
MIC became a wholly owned subsidiary of AMRESCO in August, 1998. If this option is exercised by AMRESCO, AMRESCO will be required to make a net payment of approximately $25 million to the original MIC stockholders. The transaction would relieve AMRESCO from issuing common stock with a value equal to $86.1 million to the original stockholders of MIC and paying an additional $9.18 million in cash.
AMRESCO must exercise the option and close the transaction on or before April 30, 2000, or the option will expire.
William Edwards, CEO of MIC, sai~riven by a mutual desire on the part of both companies "to focus more attention on our individual core businesses. At AMRESCO, we intend to concentrate on our commercial finance businesses."
Mr. Edwards said that for MIC to continue to grow, and to capitalize on its 31 branch offices located throughout the United States, MIC is concentrating on aggressively expanding the number of refinancing products it offers. "MIC has established a solid reputation as a leader in VA and FHA streamlined refinanced loans in the 62 years we have been in business," he said. "Now we will also be focusing on providing additional refinancing options to existing mortgage holders of non-VA/FHA loans."
Mr. Edwards said that, as an independent company, MIC expects to leverage its loan-generating organization and capabilities into markets unrelated to its traditional VA and FHA refinancing business. "We will also be looking for strategic acquisition/merger partners that will help us broaden our product line," Mr. Edwards said.
In 1998 Mortgage Investors Corp. was the nation's largest provider of VA interest rate reduction refinancing loans (IRRRLs) and the seventh largest VA lender overall. Taking all mortgage products into consideration, MIC was the 31st largest retail generator of mortgages in the U.S. |
