Reuters: Bankruptcy News: UPDATE 1-Nationstar and Ocwen, Walter seen in ResCap bids-sources

Reuters: Bankruptcy News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

UPDATE 1-Nationstar and Ocwen, Walter seen in ResCap bids-sources Oct 19th 2012, 18:26 Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:26pm EDT * Auction next week for mortgage business, loans * Nationstar is opening bidder for mortgage business * Berkshire bidding for loan portfolio By Jessica Toonkel and Rick Rothacker Oct 19 (Reuters) - Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc and a consortium of Ocwen Financial Corp and Walter Investment Management Corp are expected to make bids for Residential Capital LLC's mortgage business in a bankruptcy auction that begins next week, sources familiar with the situation said. Nationstar, a mortgage servicer majority-owned by Fortress Investment Group LLC, is the starting bidder for the mortgage business at $2.45 billion. Ocwen, another growing servicer, is teaming up with Walter for its offer, the sources said. ResCap, the mortgage unit of auto lender Ally Financial Inc, filed for bankruptcy in May in an effort to wipe out legal liabilities from mortgage-backed securities it sold during the housing boom. Bids are due by the end of business Friday for ResCap's mortgage platform as well as a portfolio of loans. The private auction begins Tuesday at a New York hotel. Residential Capital and Ocwen declined to comment. Spokespeople for Nationstar and Walter could not be immediately reached. The ResCap sale is expected to raise at least $4 billion, which will then become part of a pool of money used to pay back Ally and other investors, including those who bought mortgage-backed securities tied to ResCap home loans that went bad. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc has set the low bid for the loan package at $1.44 billion, topping Ally, which had said it would buy the loans if no one else would. Berkshire also argued in bankruptcy court for the right to be the opening bidder for the mortgage business, but failed to unseat Nationstar. It was unclear on Friday ahead of the bids deadline if Berkshire would make an offer during the auction. Berkshire "does not normally discuss our activities other than when we're legally required to do so," Buffett's assistant, Debbie Bosanek, said. Nationstar, Ocwen and Walter have been building up their mortgage servicing businesses by buying assets shed by larger banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. Ocwen also agreed this month to buy Homeward Residential Holdings from private-equity firm WL Ross & Co. LLC for $750 million in cash and stock. Ally, which is 74 percent owned by the U.S. government after a series of bailouts, is looking to focus on U.S. auto lending and banking after taking huge losses on ResCap's mortgages. It's selling international businesses in a bid to pay back taxpayers. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions