Mortgage REIT Adds $50B Servicing Platform

New Residential is headquartered at the AllianceBernstein Building in New York City. (Photo: AllianceBernstein)

NEW YORK CITY—New Residential Investment Corp. (NRZ) said Wednesday it had signed agreements to acquire specialty finance company Shellpoint Partners, a $190-million acquisition that the mortgage REIT says is highly complementary to its existing capabilities, including mortgage servicing rights. An approved Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seller and servicer, Shellpoint will bring a $50-billion servicing portfolio and annual origination volume of about $6.6 billion to the mix, the latter through its New Penn Financial platform.

“Shellpoint’s origination and servicing platforms provide New Residential with recapture capabilities that can help enhance returns on our existing MSR portfolio and create new complementary revenue channels,” says NRZ CEO Michael Nierenberg. “In addition, as a rated servicer, we believe Shellpoint will provide added servicing capacity to further diversify our servicing relationships and help accelerate transfer timelines for our MSR purchases.”