Residential mortgage services company Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. (NYSE:NSM) announced on Thursday it had acquired Equifax Settlement Services Holding, LLC from Equifax Inc. on Feb. 6, 2013 for an undisclosed amount.
Equifax Settlement Services (ESS) is an appraisal, title insurance, and settlement services provider serving a broad array of “blue chip” clients, including the largest financial institutions in the country. ESS currently has more than 130 employees based in Coraopolis, Pa. and Frisco, Tex. and reported more than $65 million in revenue in 2012.
Lewsville, Tex.-based Nationstar said it plans to combine this latest acquisition with its Solutionstar platform and rebrand it as “Solutionstar Settlement Services.”
“This acquisition will play a key role in our goal to become the long-term strategic partner of choice to financial institutions,” said Nationstar CEO Jay Bray. “In support of our strategy to further broaden our real estate services offering across the entire mortgage lifecycle, we will continue to pursue strategic acquisitions of fee-based services companies that meet our return thresholds.”
The Equifax purchase may be related to the substantial expansion of Nationstar’s servicing portfolio in the last couple of years.
In December 2011, Nationstar purchased $18 billion in reverse mortgage servicing rights from Bank of America. A few months later, in April 2012, it acquired MetLife’s reverse mortgage serving rights as well following the institution’s exit from the reverse mortgage market, then purchased more Bank of America servicing rights on the forward mortgage side in June.
Written by Alyssa Gerace
