Walter Investment Management CEO to leave; emergence update provided

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, Feb. 2 – Walter Investment Management Corp. announced Friday that chief executive officer and president Anthony N. Renzi will be leaving the company after a permanent or interim successor is named.

According to a news release, Walter expects to retain an executive search firm to identify and evaluate internal and external candidates to succeed Renzi.

“With the upcoming completion of our court-supervised financial restructuring efforts, we believe that this is the right time to transition leadership and prepare for Walter’s next chapter,” board of directors’ chairman George M. Awad said in the release.

As previously reported, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York recently approved the company’s prepackaged financial restructuring plan.

Walter said it is continuing to work toward satisfying all conditions to the plan. The company expects that the conditions will be satisfied and it will emerge from Chapter 11 in the near-term.

Plan issuances

The company said in an 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it intends to change its name to Ditech Holding Corp. on the plan effective date.

Walter said it received approval on Jan. 24 to list on the New York Stock Exchange 4.25 million shares of new common stock and 27.69 million shares of new common stock reserved for issuance under a management incentive plan or for issuance upon conversion or exercise of its series A and series B warrants and mandatorily convertible preferred stock upon official notice of issuance.

The new common stock is expected to trade under the symbol DHCP.

In addition to the new common stock, Walter said it will issue on the plan effective date 100,000 shares of mandatorily convertible preferred stock, face amount $1,000, convertible into 11.5 million shares of new common stock; 7.25 million series A warrants, exercisable for 7.25 million shares; and 5.75 million series B warrants, exercisable for 5.75 million shares.

Financial results changes

Walter also amended its net loss for December to $138.02 million. The loss was originally reported as $134.78 million.

According to the 8-K, based on a preliminary review, the company now expects cash for the year ending December 2018 to be $210 million, as compared to the projected estimate of $261 million set in the disclosure statement for the plan.

Walter said the variance is the result of a variety of factors, including timing considerations, matters related to servicer advances and updated working capital assumptions.

Also, the company said it expects adjusted EBITDA for the year ended Dec. 31, 2017 to be moderately lower than its projection included in the disclosure statement as a result of continued expenses and charges in the servicing and reverse segments, principally associated with default servicing operations, which were partially offset by performance in excess of expectations in the originations segment.

“The company believes that the pre-packaged plan remains feasible notwithstanding the variances,” according to the 8-K.

Walter is a Fort Washington, Pa., servicer and originator of mortgage loans and servicer of reverse mortgage loans. The company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 30, 2017 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York under Chapter 11 case number 17-13446.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.