Reverse Merger Mania — Is It Short Term?

The Seattle Mortgage Company was acquired by the Bank of America in June, now in July it’s the sale Liberty Reverse Mortgage to Genworth for $50 million.You have to figure that major reverse mortgage lenders are not being purchased because the buyers expect a decline in the marketplace for elder services. These purchases suggest at least that there is a significant long-term benefit to being in the reverse mortgage business.

This view makes sense because the population of those above age 65 is increasing and more people should equal more reverse loans — even in market penetration does not increase. Instead, it is best to see that reverse mortgages are relatively new with much expansion in the future.

The official Liberty Mortgage announcement says that:

Senior Financial, Inc., a wholly owned venture investment subsidiary of Genworth Financial, Inc. announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Liberty Reverse Mortgage, Inc., headquartered in Rancho Cordova, California. Liberty is an independent reverse mortgage lender. Under the terms of the agreement, Senior Financial will pay $50 million for Liberty at closing with potential additional performance-based financial consideration.

“This acquisition is a natural extension of our commitment to the senior market and our vision to deliver financial security to consumers,” said Pam Schutz, Executive Vice President — Genworth. “Liberty will allow Genworth to offer senior market consumers new products that provide liquidity, retirement income, and enable funding of their retirement safety net.”

“This new relationship will provide unique synergistic opportunities to leverage Genworth’s focus on retirement and senior markets and build new distribution outlets,” said Scott Hanson, co-founder of Liberty.

The proposed transaction is subject to various state and governmental approvals as well as other conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2007.

About Genworth Financial Genworth Financial, Inc. is a leading financial security company meeting the retirement, longevity and lifestyle protection, investment and mortgage insurance needs of more than 15 million customers. It has a presence in more than 25 countries.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 1:59 am and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.