Collection Agency to be Acquired by Ocwen for $55 million

A leading mortgage servicer announced late Wednesday that it has acquired collection agency Nationwide Credit Inc. (NCI) for $55 million.

Ocwen Financial Corporation (NYSE: OCN) said in a release that it will fold NCI’s considerable collection operations into its Ocwen Recovery Group unit.  NCI has more than 1,200 employees in offices in Kennesaw, GA; Vestal, NY; Phoenix, AZ; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Sacramento, CA; Victoria, British Columbia in Canada and Mumbai, India.

"Having achieved our cost reduction and improved execution capabilities from Ocwen Recovery Group’s global workforce, this transaction is in line with our focus on both organic and acquisition based revenue growth for this segment," said William C. Erbey, Chairman and CEO of Ocwen Financial Corporation.

Ocwen announced that top members of NCI’s current management team – including CEO and President Patrick Carroll, CFO George Williams, and EVP of Operations Dale Bissette – will be remaining with the company.

Carroll said in the release, "NCI is proud to be joining Ocwen.  Now, as part of a larger organization with greater resources, we will be able to more quickly refine and strengthen our current services as well as speed up the development and deployment of additional services we have in our development pipeline.”  Ocwen is a national leader in the servicing of subprime mortgage loans.

NCI had the majority of its shares acquired by private equity firm Bayshore Capital from Centre Partners in 2002.  ARM industry advisor Mark Russell, of Kaulkin Ginsberg Company, said of the acquisition, “This is an interesting deal because it may be a harbinger of things to come among collection agencies backed by private equity in the mid to late 1990s.  Nationwide Credit was among the larger collection agencies acquired by private equity at that time.   Now we could see many of those investments cashed in as a part of this current M&A wave in the industry."