Ocwen Picks Up Saxon Mortgage from Morgan Stanley for $59.3M

October 26, 2011
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Morgan Stanley has found a taker for Saxon Mortgage Services Inc.  Morgan Stanley will sell the residential mortgage loan servicing firm to Ocwen Financial Corp. for $59.3 million–and approximately $1.4 billion for servicing outstanding advance receivables.

Scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2012, the transaction comes five years after Morgan Stanley acquired Saxon for $706 million in cash. Upon the December 2006 completion of the purchase, Anthony Tufariello, then global head of the company’s Securitized Products Group, said, “This acquisition is another important step in our long-term strategy of building a global, vertically integrated residential mortgage business.”

As of April, Saxon’s servicing portfolio included upwards of 169,300 loans totaling $29.2 billion in value, Fitch Ratings reported in affirming Saxon’s ‘RSS2+’ residential special servicer rating.  “The company’s strategy remains focused on subservicing of distressed mortgage assets,” Fitch stated in August.

“In 2010, Saxon increased its capacity through sales of mortgage servicing rights and sub-servicing arrangements for its legacy subprime portfolio,” Fitch said. “As a result, Saxon’s current infrastructure and excess capacity have positioned the company for significant growth through its pursuit of subservicing opportunities.”