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Goldman Sachs Sells Litton Servicing Arm to Ocwen

""Goldman Sachs"":http://www.goldmansachs.com has agreed to sell its residential mortgage servicing subsidiary to ""Ocwen Financial Corp."":http://www.ocwen.com

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Ocwen will pay $263.7 million in cash to acquire ""Litton Loan Servicing"":https://www.littonloan.com/. According to ""Ocwen's filing"":http://secfilings.nyse.com/filing.php?doc=1&attach=ON&ipage=7655876&rid=23 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Sunday, this amount could be adjusted at closing.

In addition to the cash purchase price, Ocwen will lay out another $337 million to take care of some of Litton's outstanding debt. As part of the transaction, Ocwen has also agreed to finance about $2.47 billion of servicing advances associated with the business.

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The deal will result in Ocwen's acquisition of a servicing portfolio of approximately $41.2 billion in unpaid principal balance of primarily non-prime residential mortgage loans. Ocwen, a Florida-based special servicer, also acquires Litton's servicing platforms in Houston, Texas and Dallas, Texas.

Goldman Sachs purchased Litton in 2007. According to a report by _Bloomberg News_, a number of investment firms were buying mortgage servicers at that time to help them better understand the market, and profit from buying discounted loans. Goldman disclosed that it was considering selling Litton in March of this year.

Ocwen noted in its regulatory filing that Goldman will retain liability for any fines and penalties that could be imposed by government authorities relating to Litton's foreclosure and servicing practices in connection with the robo-signing settlements. The investment bank has also agreed to cover certain losses arising from third-party claims with respect to Litton's servicing agreements.

Last summer, Ocwen ""purchased HomEq Servicing"":http://dsnews.comarticles/ocwen-buys-homeq-servicing-for-13-billion-2010-05-28, the U.S. mortgage servicing business of Barclays Bank, for $1.3 billion. That transaction added a servicing portfolio of approximately $28 billion in home loans to Ocwen's business.

About Author: Carrie Bay

Carrie Bay is a freelance writer for DS News and its sister publication MReport. She served as online editor for DSNews.com from 2008 through 2011. Prior to joining DS News and the Five Star organization, she managed public relations, marketing, and media relations initiatives for several B2B companies in the financial services, technology, and telecommunications industries. She also wrote for retail and nonprofit organizations upon graduating from Texas A&M University with degrees in journalism and English.
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