Wells & Wachovia?

In Ann Arbor, Mich., Washtenaw Group Inc. announced it has signed a letter of intent to sell 57% of its common shares outstanding to GenStone Financial in exchange for an immediate infusion of $1.5 million and eventual control of the company. After buying the 6 million newly issued shares of common stock, GenStone will follow up with an additional $3.5 million investment in convertible preferred shares by February 2006.

“With the influx of our investment, we believe that Washtenaw will become the largest minority-owned mortgage-banking company in the United States,” said Richard Coleman, GenStone president and chief executive, in the announcement.

In addition to “aggressively” pursuing the residential rehabilitation and upgrade housing market, Washtenaw Mortgage Co., a wholesale lender with about 2,000 correspondent lenders in approximately 40 states, will broaden marketing efforts toward the emerging domestic market comprised of US ethnic-minority groups, according to the announcement.

GenStone’s Coleman will become CEO of Washtenaw, the statement said, while Ronald Evans, currently executive vice president of Washtenaw Mortgage, will become president.

Popular Inc. said Friday it closed on the purchase for substantially all of the assets of Infinity Mortgage Corp. of Parsippany, N.J.

The Puerto Rico-based banker, which at the month’s beginning closed on its acquisition of E-LOAN Inc., said the purchase of Infinity provides further U.S. market penetration, complements its existing nonprime mortgage lending business through direct mail, and expands its loan servicing business.

Infinity Mortgage’s operations are now part of Popular’s Equity One Inc., the announcement said.

New York Mortgage Trust Inc. announced Thursday its board of directors approved a share repurchase plan of up to $10.0 million of its outstanding common stock.

The plan, funded from available capital, allows the residential mortgage banker to repurchase shares through Dec. 31, 2015.

Freddie Mac recently said it is offering to purchase for cash any and all of the outstanding shares of the Step-Down Preferred Stock issued by each of Home Ownership Funding Corp. and Home Ownership Funding Corp. II.

The offer will expire Dec. 9 at 5 p.m., New York City time, Freddie said.

The two Home Ownership corporations were reportedly established in 1997 with the principal business objective of acquiring and holding Freddie purchase certificates so as to qualify as real estate investment trusts and to generate net income for distribution to stockholders.

The government sponsored enterprise reportedly owns approximately 99.99% of the outstanding shares of common stock of each corporation.

The boards of directors for each of the two corporations announced that “each corporation expresses no position and remains neutral towards the tender offer commenced by Freddie” because of the existence of a potential conflict of interest for the board members, who are all Freddie officers.

Persistent speculation in banking circles has Wachovia and Wells Fargo teaming up one day to create the nation’s second coast-to-coast bank branch network, according to the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal.

“There’s no other bank combination more compelling than Wells Fargo and Wachovia coming together,” Tony Plath, an associate professor of finance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, reportedly told the Journal. “It makes colossal sense for them to come together.”

Wells Fargo’s John Stumpf reportedly sparked speculation when, in his first public comments to analysts as president, he indicated the Southeast is on the bank’s radar screen, the publication reported.