Blend Labs filed a confidential draft registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the first step in taking the company public.
It is a sign that initial public offering fever continues among mortgage-related businesses, despite expectations for originations to slow and the recent news that both AmeriHome and Caliber Home Loans dropped their attempts to go public by merging with other companies. The Caliber deal for now also has put on hold any plans for New Residential Investment to take its NewRez business public.
"The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined," Blend said in a terse press release. "The initial public offering is expected to commence after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions."
Nima Ghamsari is the CEO and co-founder of Blend
Doma and SoFi are among the other mortgage-related businesses currently looking to go public, both of which agreed to merge with special purpose acquisition companies. In addition, now that its own acquisition by China Oceanwide has bit the dust, Genworth wants to go ahead with a public offering of a portion of its U.S. mortgage insurance subsidiary.
And apparently warming up in the bullpen is Better.com, whose $500 million investment from SoftBank Group earlier this month has only increased speculation that the New York-based mortgage banker will go public shortly.
Blend raised $300 million in a Series G round in January from Coatue and Tiger Global Management, giving it a $3.3 billion valuation. Overall, Blend raised $665 million from a total of 30 investors through nine private equity rounds, according to Crunchbase.
In March, Blend agreed to buy the majority interest in Title365 from Mr. Cooper (which retained 9.9%) for $422 million.
The company's management team includes Nima Ghamsari, CEO and co-founder, and Tim Mayopoulos, its president, who is also the former president and CEO of Fannie Mae. The company is now in a quiet period under SEC rules and unable to comment further about the announcement.
Credit availability declined in June as the job market and rising delinquency figures have some lenders concerned, the leading mortgage trade group said.
The Ocean State is the latest to enact rules prohibiting the agreements that end up tying older homeowners to long-term contracts with real estate brokers.
CEO Robin Vince refused to comment on "rumors or speculation" about a potential merger between the custody banking giant and its smaller rival, Northern Trust. He also said that the bar for BNY to engage in M&A is "very high."
House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill promised to begin combing through Dodd-Frank to find areas for deregulation, while the panel's ranking member made it clear that Democrats would fight for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Gain on sale at JPMorgan Chase fell by 5 basis points in the second quarter, which could be a slightly adverse sign for mortgage banker results, KBW said.
