PHH, EJF Capital Reach Governance Agreement

PHH headquarters in Mount Laurel, NJ. (Photo: The Norwood Co.)

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ—PHH Corp. and hedge fund EJF Capital have reached an agreement on PHH’s governance. PHH said Friday it would nominate James Neuhauser and Kevin Stein to its board at its 2017 annual meeting, and EJF has agreed to vote its shares of PHH common stock in favor of all PHH nominees at the 2017 annual meeting in June. The agreement comes about five weeks after EJF increased its stake in PHH from 8.4% to 9.9% and sought to add two members to the board of the financial services company, which provides mortgage services, including loan origination.

In March, Arlington, VA-based EJF had nominated Neuhauser and Stein, increasing PHH’s board from seven to nine members. The two nominees each have “vast knowledge regarding the financial services industry generally, businesses engaged in similar lines of business to the company and mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and restructurings of publicly traded financial services companies,” EJF Capital wrote in a letter to PHH.