Saxon to Add 234 Virginia Jobs

Gov. Mark R. Warner recently announced that Saxon Capital Inc. will build a 115,000-square-foot-building next to its headquarters facility in Glen Allen, Va. The $17 million-property will create 234 new jobs.

Construction began Monday and occupancy is scheduled for July 2005, Saxon spokeswoman Katie Soule told MortgageDaily.com. The new hirings should be completed by the end of 2007.

“We are pleased that Saxon Capital has chosen to expand its existing facility in Henrico County,” the governor said in the announcement. “It is exactly the kind of top-notch service company that can make the most of the high-quality workforce that Henrico County has to offer.“

Virginia competed for the project with California and Texas, where Saxon has additional primary facilities.

Saxon’s chief executive officer Michael Sawyer said in a written statement that “when it came time to expand, the deciding factors were Henrico County’s positive business environment and superb workforce. Virginia’s commitment to helping Saxon with incentives for recruiting and training new employees also makes Henrico County a smart choice.“

The Virginia Department of Business Assistance will reportedly support the project through its Workforce Services program.

Because Saxon will remain in an open registration period until October due to the fact that it is finalizing its REIT conversion, Soule could not confirm how many of the new jobs will be mortgage positions.

The mainly subprime residential mortgage lender and servicer currently has about 1,000 mortgage employees, Soule said.

Saxon announced plans to convert to a REIT when its directors authorized the move in January. Shareholders approved the merger agreement providing for Saxon’s conversion earlier this week at the annual shareholders meeting. In addition to one share of Saxon REIT Inc. common stock being exchanged for each outstanding share of Saxon common stock, the cash component of the merger consideration was determined at $4.00 per share.

The Virginia company says it originates and purchases loans in 49 states through its wholesale and correspondent channel Saxon Mortgage Inc. and retail channel America’s MoneyLine Inc. Saxon operates through a network of approximately 4,000 brokers, 400 correspondents and 27 retail branches.

In the second quarter, Saxon’s mortgage production totaled $944.0 million, while the size of the servicing portfolio, handled by Saxon Mortgage Services Inc., ended at $11.4 billion.

Fitch Ratings, which rates residential mortgage servicers on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being the highest), recently affirmed Saxon Mortgage Services residential primary servicer ratings for subprime product of ‘RPS2+’ based on the company’s ability to service, collect, and liquidate subprime residential mortgage loans. The ratings agency gave Saxon’s residential special servicer rating of ‘RSS2-‘, reflecting its ability to manage and liquidate nonperforming residential mortgage loans and real estate owned assets.