Ocwen to Sell Some Homeward, ResCap Assets for $219M

Ocwen Financial (OCN) is selling off parts of a company it recently purchased and another it expects to buy soon.

The Atlanta-based mortgage servicer would sell certain fee-based businesses that belong to Residential Capital, which Ocwen expects to acquire later this month, and Homeward Residential Holdings, which Ocwen bought in December, to Altisource Portfolio Solutions (ASPS), the companies said Tuesday.

Altisource, a provider of services to the mortgage industry, would pay $218.6 million for the combined assets. They include certain default management and chargeoff services related to ResCap; an insurance agency, a mortgage asset recovery division and other assets that belong to Homeward; as well as information technology and intellectual property from both firms.

"By selling these noncore assets, Ocwen is able to achieve a greater projected return on the Homeward and ResCap servicing acquisitions and to continue to focus primarily on growing our core residential and commercial servicing businesses," Ronald Faris, Ocwen's chief executive, said in a news release. "Having an outlet for disposition of peripheral mortgage-related assets significantly enhances Ocwen's competitive positioning for future servicing platform acquisitions that include noncore operations."

In December Ocwen bought Homeward, a mortgage servicer, for roughly $766 million from private-equity firm WL Ross & Co. Ocwen and its partner Walter Investment Management successfully bid $3 billion in October for the servicing unit of ResCap, a unit of Ally Financial that filed for bankruptcy in May.

Ocwen's sale of ResCap assets to Altisource is subject to Ocwen's purchase of ResCap, the companies said.