With quarterly residential loan originations nearly tripling over the past year, an Indiana-based lender has moved to a bigger office to accommodate a growing staff. A recent investment by a private-equity firm will be used to increase third-party originations and acquire new branches.
Second-quarter residential production at Stonegate Mortgage Corp. was $0.596 billion, according to data provided to Mortgage Daily.
Business at the Indianapolis-based firm soared from the first quarter, when home-loan originations totaled $0.404 billion.
The improvement was even more spectacular when compared to second-quarter 2011 production of $0.219 billion.
“Stonegate’s servicing portfolio also saw significant growth, increasing 235 percent, led by its correspondent channel which has grown 519 percent over 2011,” a news release Tuesday said.
The lender has been supporting the rapid growth with a recruiting campaign that has pushed headcount to 254 as of June 30 from 225 at the end of March and 207 at the end of last year.
By the end of 2012, Stonegate projects that an additional 92 employees will be hired, while 300 employees are expected to have been added by the end of 2015.
In support of the expanding staff, Stonegate recently moved to a new 30,000-square-foot headquarters facility and is expanding that location by another 20,000 square feet.
Growth at the company, which reports that it was ranked as the ninth-fastest growing privately held Indianapolis company by the Indianapolis Business Journal, has pushed year-to-date revenues up 340 percent from last year.
Last year, Inc. magazine ranked Stonegate as the fastest-growing mortgage-related firm in the country and No. 140 among companies in all industries. Revenues were $15.4 million in 2010.
In March, Long Ridge Equity Partners invested $25 million in Stonegate. The new capital from the New York-based private equity firm will be used to increase its servicing portfolio, acquire retail branches and grow its third-party originations from correspondent clients and mortgage brokers.
