Two Agency Lenders for sale
I’ve seen in the Commercial Mortgage Alert lately that two different agency lenders (Lument and BWE) are both at least rumored to be up for sale. Why the sudden trend? This comes right after a couple of sales of DUS licenses as well. Who do you all think could be potential buyers? To me the most logical answer seems to be a big bank, but considering how that has panned out for Grandbridge/Truist so far maybe that doesn’t make as much sense as I had thought?
CBRE, especially after their earnings report
They already have a DUS License
So? CBRE has $2bn of cash its sitting on, plus consolidation even at the DUS level will be inevitable in the near future.
If not a DUS firm, and CBRE continues to sit on cash, they're fixing to acquire someone sometime soon.
B of A seems like it could be a fit. If a big bank buys them as long as they don’t completely disrupt the business model like Truist did I don’t see why it can’t work.
There are very few licenses that go up for sale as they are owned by publicly traded companies and well integrated within their ecosystem. This scarcity increases the value as Fannie/Freddie have not printed any new licenses since Basis (which is also exploring a sale). There is always speculation about a bank in the mix from BofA to US Bank. We just saw Fifth Third buy a Fannie license (and they own a part of BWE). In some ways it would make sense to consolidate those licenses but at what price?
These licenses for a bank make a ton of sense as it is ancillary fee revenue. When you are pricing construction/balance sheet loans at historical lows the ability to layer in an agency/life co execution makes management sleep at night for that going-in low ROE. However, banks hate commission sales people and commission sales people hate banks and their regulations. The whole industry is a conflict of interest! So if you want to pay $1 Billion for Lument, you have to expect a lot of originators are going to jump ship so what are you really getting and what is that worth?
Keep in mind the Truist/Grandbridge drama has nothing to do with buying Grandbridge. It was a merger with BB&T that owned Grandbridge. It was the attempt at integration that unraveled that platform.
I see a bank overpaying for Basis as there is just nothing there but a few loans and a license. And I see a KKR/Blackstone/Starwood (insert large Private Equity player) making a run at Lument. Which everyone will tout as amazing if it happens but PE all think they are smarter than everyone else in the room so it'll be a learning curve because getting financed with the agencies and actually doing the financing are two ENTIRELY separate things.
Let's grab the popcorn and watch it all unfold!
Agreed that most commissioned sales people would love the freedom at a non bank (though that freedom can also result in fraud as we have seen in the last few years) and their income potential might be capped at a bank but what a bank can offer in return is stability and a base pay. When you cover Blackstone, Brookfield, KKR, Bridge, etc, they call you instead of you calling them. They call you because the bank has an extensive balance sheet and just overall CRE exposure with them. Agencies bend over backwards and given them the best terms. So from the bank's perspective, a base pay + bonus (which adds up to a pretty good overall comp) compensation structure is fair. And this seems to be working. In the last year, a bank was able to be a top 3 Fannie lender and their combined Freddie & Fannie production more than doubled compared to the previous year.
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