American Home Mortgage Holdings Inc. of Melville, N.Y., has completed its $178 million purchase of Los Angeles' Apex Mortgage Capital Inc. and reorganized as a real estate investment trust.
Shares of the new company, American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., began trading Thursday.
Apex investors received 0.25762 shares in the new entity for each of their shares. Stockholders of American Home, a top-30 mortgage originator, received one share for each of their shares.
During a Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. conference Tuesday in New York, American Home chairman and chief executive Michael Strauss said a REIT that creates mortgage-backed securities for its portfolio is more profitable than one that buys such bonds in the market, because it can save on taxes and dealer fees.
American Home announced the closing of the deal Wednesday. Friedman Billings was its financial adviser and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP its legal adviser. UBS Securities LLC was Apex's financial adviser and O'Melveny & Myers LLP its legal adviser.
