US private equity firms Blackstone and TPG are to acquire a UK and Irish mortgage servicer from the administrators of bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers.
US private equity firms Blackstone and TPG are to acquire a UK and Irish mortgage servicer from the administrators of bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers.
Acenden Mortgage Servicing Solutions has a portfolio of 64,000 loans under management, which was valued at £5.4 bn (€6.9 bn) in December 2013, Blackstone said in a statement.
The acquisition is being carried out by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and TPG Special Situations Partners. The investment volume was not disclosed.
Acenden has 400 staff located in offices in central London, High Wycombe (Buckinghamshire) and Dublin from which it provides primary servicing, special servicing, analytics and securitisation services. Previously part of Lehman Brothers bank and known as Capstone, the business was launched as a standalone third-party mortgage outsourcing solutions provider and rebranded as Acenden in 2010.
The transaction is expected to close in early 2015, subject to regulatory and antitrust approvals.
TSSP, a dedicated credit and special situations platform, manages over $10 bn (€8.4 bn) of investments, out of the total $66 bn of assets under TPG's management.
Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities business employs an opportunistic, multi-asset class investment strategy focused on special situations investments. The Blackstone group manages over €300 bn of assets.
