Subprime Game's Reckoning Day Risky Lending Fallout Threatens to Spread; Uncertain ARM Strength
By KAREN RICHARDSON and GREGORY ZUCKERMAN
February 27, 2007; Page C1
The worst may be yet to come for mortgage lenders. And that could add to investor nervousness.
Shares of companies that specialize in lending to riskier borrowers or offer unconventional loans have tumbled because of concerns over how rapidly these mortgages are going sour.
If these so-called subprime borrowers continue to have problems paying their debts, the lenders that target them likely will have to boost how much money they set aside for bad loans, cutting into their bottom lines. That could mean even lower stock prices.
There also is a concern that if the real-estate market remains cool, some borrowers with better credit histories might also begin struggling to make payments on certain popular, but unorthodox, mortgages. These types of loans allow borrowers to skip monthly payments, carry low short-term teaser rates or don't require detailed financial documentation. If that happens, companies such as BankUnited Financial Corp. and Countrywide Financial Corp. could suffer.
When a company keeps its reserve low, it makes its earnings look better because it continues to increase its assets from loans it originates and sells off. That holds down expenses.
But when a company beefs up those reserves and the change hits its earnings, that can impair its ability to borrow the short-term funds needed to write new mortgages. Lenders need to set aside reserves to cover any possible losses when borrowers fail to make payments.
Subprime-mortgage lenders generally sell most of their loans to investors, but many keep some loans as investments. These portfolios have grown as the number of new mortgages has risen.
New Century Financial Corp. and NovaStar Financial Inc. hold billions of dollars of loans for investment. While they have been increasing their loan-loss provisions, delinquencies have been coming faster than anticipated.
NovaStar's reserves were 1.05% of its $2.1 billion in loans held for investment in the fourth quarter, up from 0.75% in the third quarter, but still ranked among the lowest in the industry, according to Zach Gast, an analyst at the Center for Financial Research and Analysis. New Century's ratio was 1.4% as of the third quarter. CFRA doesn't assign ratings on stocks.
Scott Hartman, chief executive of NovaStar, says the lender made a "substantial increase to our loan-loss reserve" in the past quarter, and that about half of those loans "tend to be of higher quality and generally performing very well."
New Century, which has said it will restate earnings for the first three quarters of 2006 to correct accounting errors regarding repurchased loans, declined to comment.
Subprime-mortgage lenders are likely to start reporting significant shortfalls in their loss reserves "as soon as the next several quarters," predicts David Honold, an analyst at Turner Investment Partners, which manages $23 billion and has avoided shares of subprime lenders. That is partly because some of the lenders could place into their investment-loan portfolio some poorly performing mortgages that they have bought back under terms of their sale agreement. That would require them to boost loan-loss reserves.
Subprime lenders already have seen their shares tumble -- NovaStar is off 50% and New Century is down 12% in the past 10 days -- and they could fall further if their credit-lines dry up because of poor loan-loss provisioning. NovaStar shares are trading at about 12 times estimated per-share earnings, but that valuation is likely to change as analysts adjust their projections to account for the company's steep fourth-quarter loss and poor earnings outlook. New Century shares also are trading at about 12 times estimated earnings for 2007.
Some investors urge caution about lenders that cater to borrowers with better credit but focus on mortgages that may suffer if weakness in housing continues, such as option adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs. These loans give borrowers multiple payment options, including a minimum payment that might not cover all of the monthly interest cost. The remainder of the interest payment is tacked onto the outstanding balance, causing it to rise.
About 59% of BankUnited's approximately $11.5 billion loan portfolio is made up of these loans and the bank is making more of them as it expands.
Countrywide has been cutting back on pay-option mortgages, funding just $2.7 billion in January out of a total $37 billion in new mortgages. Still, it has "significant exposure" to these risky loans, CFRA's Mr. Gast says. Countrywide declined to comment.
BankUnited acknowledges that borrowers are paying less of their monthly interest payments as interest rates have moved higher, and about 50% of the bank's loans have been made to residents of Florida, a weak real-estate market. And since BankUnited keeps about 70% of these loans in its own portfolio, if the borrowers run into problems it could hurt the company's earnings.
BankUnited shares, which fell 83 cents, or 3.2%, to $25.06 in 4 p.m. composite trading yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, are trading at almost nine times its expected per-share earnings over the next year.
Under accounting rules, BankUnited counts the unpaid interest payments as revenue, however. So if a borrower pays the contractual minimum of $500 a month, rather than the $1,000 interest-only amount, the bank can count the remaining $500 as revenue. That is because it is assumed it will be repaid down the road. This revenue is a rising slice of its earnings, according to an analysis by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
Humberto Lopez, BankUnited's chief financial officer, says the bank focuses on borrowers with high credit scores who generally put down at least 20% of the purchase price on a home. "Our borrowers have the financial wherewithal, and they've earned the right to have options of payments," Mr. Lopez says. "We haven't seen any weakness in their ability to pay." |
