Municipal Mortgage and Equity LLC, an arranger of real estate debt and equity financing, said it is in discussions with potential purchasers of several of its businesses or significant interests in them.
The Baltimore company, better known as MuniMae, said in a securities filing Friday that it had to curtail significant aspects of its operations and sell assets at substantial losses during the first half to obtain funds needed to meet commitments or satisfy lenders.
MuniMae said the market for tax-exempt bonds and other assets that are a major part of its business has deteriorated. In the first half it reduced its work force about 8%, to 516 employees on June 30.
The company said it would use the proceeds from any sales to finance its remaining businesses.
Nearly two years ago MuniMae determined that it had to restate its results for 2004, 2005, and the first quarter of 2006. On Friday it said it is completing final adjustments to the restatement and its financial statements for 2006.
The audit related to these financial statements is nearing completion, MuniMae said, and it expects audited results for those years to be available "shortly."
MuniMae also said its lenders have been reluctant recently to waive covenants that require the delivery of audited financial statements on a timely basis. As a result, several of the lenders have sought to reduce or terminate their lending commitments.
The company said it has sold and will likely have to continue to sell assets under very adverse market conditions, because of pressure from lenders whose loans are secured by those assets.
MuniMae said the amount of assets it was managing had climbed 7% from a year earlier, to $20.5 billion as of June 30.
