The merger between Nationstar Mortgage, the nonbank now known as Mr. Cooper, and WMIH Corp., the former parent company of Washington Mutual, is now set to move forward after the shareholders of both companies approved the deal.
According to the companies, both sets of shareholders met recently to vote on and subsequently approve the deal, which was announced earlier this year and caught many in the market off-guard, especially considering WMIH’s limited business.
In 2012, WMIH emerged from bankruptcy as the successor to Washington Mutual, and is currently the direct parent of WM Mortgage Reinsurance.
According to WMIH’s website, the company has limited operations since it emerged from bankruptcy. During that time, WMIH mainly ran WM Mortgage Reinsurance’s legacy business, which has not written any new business since Sept. 26, 2008, and is currently operating in runoff mode.
But that all changed earlier this year when the companies announced the $3.8 billion merger.
Under the terms of the deal, Nationstar shareholders may choose to receive $18 in cash or 12.7793 shares of WMIH common stock for each share of Nationstar common stock they currently own.
Upon completion of the merger, Nationstar will become a wholly owned subsidiary of WMIH. The combined business will keep the Nationstar Mortgage name and its Dallas headquarters.
The companies state that Nationstar’s operations will “continue as normal” and its employees will join the combined company, which will continue to be led by Nationstar’s senior leadership team. Nationstar CEO Jay Bray will continue to serve as the company’s CEO.
In a statement, Bray said that he is pleased with the shareholders approval of the deal.
“We are pleased with today’s vote and the support Nationstar’s stockholders have shown as we move toward completing our merger with WMIH,” Bray said. “We expect this merger to create value for Nationstar’s stockholders in both the near and long term as we continue to seek to accelerate growth by leveraging our best-in-class integrated servicing and originations platform and further enhancing the customer experience through innovation and service.”
Those sentiments were echoed by William Gallagher, the CEO of WMIH.
“We thank WMIH stockholders for approving the proposal to facilitate the merger with Nationstar Mortgage Holdings,” Gallagher said. “We look forward to closing the transaction and expect it will be value enhancing for WMIH stockholders.”
