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Countrywide Financial - All major categories2007-08-17 stories: forbes.com, wsj.com, blogspot.com Countrywide Subprime (Full Spectrum Lending): Many have written in to inform us that Countrywide has chosen to exit subprime all subprime that they could not passs on to GSEs. This has resulted in the closure of numerous Full Spectrum offices according to our sources below. Perhaps the most vocal source of this change has been Angelo Mozilo. Reuters noted:
Furthermore, readers have written in with tips regarding specific shutdowns such as the closure of the Full Spectrum Lending Indianapolis office:
And Greensboro, North Carolina:
Not to mention this news article, which describes the closure of the San Antonio office:
As always, if you can provide additional information, clarifications or corrections to this entry, please let us know. Original listing from 2007-08-17 It would be remiss of us not to list Countrywide as "ailing". Late last week (Aug 16.), Countrywide drew on an $11.5 billion "emergency" credit line to fund its operations. Earlier in the week, it had announced liquidity problems, reversing the position of a week earlier that it had adequate access to capital. Countrywide had already dramatically cut back its programs, and is shifting "90%" of its origination to its banking operations. Needless to say, it will not look like the company it has in the past couple years if it survives. By some accounts, Countrywide had gone from a business based approximately 70% on traditional loans around 2003, to one 70% based on subprime and other sorts of marginal loans recently. Looks like it will need to return to its roots to make it. However, concerns abound as to whether it will pull through, e.g.:
We would agree: if Countrywide's business did indeed become chiefly based on the sorts of loans that are now seeing accelerating delinquencies, they will find themselves seeing rising losses and expenses at a time of dwindling origination profits—perhaps to terminal effect. We note that Countrywide has more than 10,000 REOs nationwide as of this writing, with an asking price of $2.2 billion. Assuming an average cost of about $50k in value losses and expenses to dispose of each of these properties, this "portfolio" would represent a potential write-down in excess of $500 million. Q1 2007 net income was $433 million. Recent trends suggest this loss area will only grow over the next year. Disclosure: The authors have short positions in Countrywide (CFC) as of this writing.
Important: This company is on our list of lending operations that are apparently ailing or which we think are worth watching for any other reason. We make no representation or claim that any company on this list will or will not continue as a going concern, or change in any other way, adverse or beneficial. If you have concerns about this company, we suggest contacting them directly and/or checking with other reliable sources. |