The upcoming merger of two independent lenders will create a mortgage banker that would have ranked among the 20-biggest originators last year.
An announcement Wednesday indicated that Irving, Texas-based Caliber Home Loans Inc. has reached an agreement to acquire Cobalt Mortgage Inc.
The acquisition of Kirkland, Wash.-based Cobalt is expected to consummate in early November. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Cobalt, founded in 2001, aggressively recruits mortgage branches.
“Through this combination, Caliber is significantly expanding its sales force and nearly doubling the size of its branch retail lending business,” the statement said. “The transaction also enhances Caliber’s geographic footprint and provides entrance points into new markets, including the highly-attractive Pacific Northwest region.”
Headcount at Caliber, which operated as Vericrest Financial prior to June 2013, stood at 1,240 as of May 2013.
Keith Tibbles and Ernie Gehre of Cobalt will continue to lead the new Cobalt division of Caliber. Tibbles will additionally become an executive vice president of Caliber.
Caliber, which is owned by Lone Star Funds, previously reported that it originated $8.4 billion during 2013. Cobalt’s production was nearly $4 billion last year. The combined volume would have ranked the merged company was the 17th largest mortgage lender last year, according to the Mortgage Daily 2013 Mortgage Origination Survey.
So far this year, Cobalt has generated $2.65 billion in residential loan originations.
One of the benefits of the merger is that Caliber will be able to service loans originated by Cobalt. Caliber reported that its serviced 244,000 home loans for $50 billion as of Dec. 31, 2013.
“Throughout its long history of solid-performance, Cobalt has established an outstanding reputation for growing purchase volume and is well-respected for its disciplined approach to governance,” Caliber Chief Executive Officer Joe Anderson noted in the announcement “We look forward to welcoming the talented Cobalt team to the Caliber family and to working together to better meet the unique financing needs of homeowners, builders and realtors across the country.”
