Business Specialties Investments
Prospect Proceeds in Buying IndyMac Mortgage Branches
July 22, 2008
By: Dees Stribling, Midwest Correspondent

Prospect Mortgage has decided to proceed with its acquisition of most of IndyMac's retail mortgage branches in a deal scheduled to close early next month.

All together, Northbrook, Ill.-based Prospect will buy about 80 Indymac loan offices nationwide. The deal is going to proceed as scheduled, and under the original terms, according to Prospect, despite the seizure of Indymac by the Office of Thrift Supervision earlier this month and the current conservatorship of Indymac by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

John Johnston and Ron Bergum of Indymac will remain leaders of the retail branch group following the closing, and some 750 other Indymac personnel will move to Prospect. The deal was originally stuck not long before a run on the bank caused IndyMac to implode. In the first week of July, IndyMac said it was selling most of its retail mortgage branches in part to address regulators' concern that it was not well-capitalized.

Earlier this month, Prospect was reportedly in negotiations to buy Dallas-based homebuilder Centex's network of mortgage retail offices, but that deal apparently fell through.

Though relatively new--it was established in 2006--Prospect Mortgage is a sizable mortgage lender, focused on residential loans. Prospect is backed by Sterling Partners, a private equity fund based in Chicago and Baltimore.

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