$1B Freddie Offering Goes to Market as Management Drain Continues

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McLEAN, VA-Two significant developments, one routine, one not, happened with Freddie Mac at the start of the week. The routine event was the offer of $1 billion in K-certificates, a securitization program in high demand by investors. The other development was the resignation of Anthony Renzi, who oversees the GSE’s single-family mortgage business.

Renzi is reportedly leaving to take a position with another finance company. A Freddie Mac spokesperson was not able to return a call to discuss the K-certificate offering. For the multifamily industry, Renzi’s departure is not relevant—except for what it signifies, which is an ongoing brain drain at the GSEs that seems to be getting worse, quarter by quarter.

There is the expected departure of CEO Charles E. Haldeman Jr. Last month the Wall Street Journal reported that his successor was close to being chosen. Further down the totem pole, other executives—people with extensive institutional knowledge--are leaving as well.

For example, at RealShare Apartments East, a conference produced by ALM's Real Estate Media Group held earlier this year, demoralization in the GSE ranks was a topic of discussion, and concern, among panelists. “It hurts when we lose people who have been with the agency for years,” Manny Menendez, vice president and head of Multifamily and Customer Engagement for Fannie Mae, said that day. l Indeed, in a fitting bit of irony, the moderator of the panel was Mike McRoberts, managing director of Prudential Mortgage Capital—and a former longtime executive at Freddie Mac.

These developments are happening as Freddie Mac, at least from a multifamily sector perspective, continues to provide much-welcomed financial support--its K-certificates program a case in point.

Freddie Mac launched this program in 2009 with an eye to adding more liquidity to the multifamily sector. They are backed by multifamily mortgage loans originated through Freddie Mac's Capital Markets Execution program, and offered by a network of dealers.

The GSE has increased the number of deals it does through the program each year to the point where, today it has completed six deals year to date, including the one this week. This latest offering is backed by 75 recently-originated multifamily mortgages, all guaranteed by Freddie.