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Reuters – Freddie Mac, the second largest provider of U.S. home mortgage funding, on Friday posted its first quarterly profit in two years as gains from hedges and a one-time accounting change offset still-lofty credit losses.
For the first quarter in four, Freddie Mac said it would not need a capital injection from the Treasury to maintain its business of providing credit for U.S. housing. But it continues to rely on the government for survival, it said.
AP – The Chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, one of the mortgage giants at the heart of the nation’s financial meltdown, was found dead in his basement early Wednesday morning in what police said was an apparent suicide.
David Kellermann, 41, apparently hanged himself in his suburban Washington home, said a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation. He asked not to be identified because the investigation was ongoing.
Kellermann was promoted last September when the government seized the mortgage company and ousted its top two executives. Neighbors said Kellermann had lost a noticeable amount of weight under the strain of the new job. Some neighbors said they suggested to Kellermann should quit to avoid the stress, but Kellermann responded that he wanted to help the company through its problems. The neighbors did not want to be quoted by name because they didn’t want to upset the family.
The New York-based hedge fund manager reportedly made a record $3.7 billion in 2007. In 2008, his $7 billion Advantage Plus fund returned an incredible 37.6 percent. Another smaller fund he manages returned nearly 590 percent last year, thought to be the largest one-year hedge fund return in history.
How he did it: In early 2008, Paulson began short-selling shares of financial stocks, including the doomed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He also bet big on Anheuser-Busch’s sale to Belgium’s InBev at a time when the deal looked to be falling apart.
Gotham Gazette – The turbulent financial market events of recent days demonstrably signal the end of Wall Street as we know it. More uncertainty lies ahead, on Wall Street but also for the national economy. How is this affecting New York and what will it take to get the economy moving again?
Six months ago, a "disastrous foray into financial wizardry" by banks and lenders led us to the sight of the Federal Reserve giving J.P. Morgan Chase $28 billion to take over Bear Stearns. It was thought that this unprecedented action might calm the panic triggered by the sub-prime lending fiasco.
The bursting of the housing bubble destroyed billions of dollars of equity people held in their homes and started to jeopardize millions of mortgages across the country, prime as well as sub-prime. This mortgage meltdown led the U.S. Treasury Department earlier this month to take over the two quasi-public mortgage giants- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together hold nearly half of the $12 trillion in outstanding mortgage debt in the U.S.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Foreclosed properties present an opportunity, to some, of finding an otherwise unattainable home at a deeply discounted rate. For hedge funds, foreclosures could mean massive returns in the near future. That’s why dozens of hedge funds are quietly building their stake in the decimated U.S. mortgage market.
According to a report published by Philippines News, tens of thousands of distressed loans and foreclosed properties have been sold to hedge funds and other private equity groups.
Lone Star Funds, a Dallas based company that invests in distressed debt, snatched up a string of mortgage-linked investments from Merrill Lynch once valued at $30.6 billion, for $6.7 billion. It’s no surprise Merrill was quick to sell, seeing as how they were one of the biggest financial institutions to get hit by the subprime fallout last summer, writing down an estimated $25 billion.
"We’re much easier to deal with than a bank," said Jacob Benaroya, Managing Partner of Biltmore Capital Group, a hedge fund in New Jersey that has allotted $100 million a year to acquire mortgage debt. "We’ve bought [the loan] at enough of a discount that we can make special arrangements with the borrower."
Hedge funds stress they are more lenient than the banks and in turn, better to deal with. They may make special arrangements with the borrower, or have them turn in their house keys in exchange for forgiving the outstanding balance on the mortgage. The hedge funds then may then turn around and try to sell the property as soon as possible, or hold on to it for a while until market conditions are ideal.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
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New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may get some help from the Fed in hopes of staving off a market implosion following a crippling credit crunch and a period of great stress in the financial markets.
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a central role in our housing finance system and must continue to do so in their current form as shareholder-owner companies," Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said.
The Federal Reserve of New York has been authorized to provide funding should it prove necessary, in which case the loans will be dispersed with a 2.25 percent interest rate. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury is seeking to expand their credit line and make an equity investment if approved by Congress. The Treasury is currently allowed to extend $2.25 billion to each company.
"This affirmation of the important role [of both companies] – and that we should continue to operate as shareholder-owned companies – should go a long way toward reassuring world markets," said Freddie Mac head Richard Syron.
The two companies back about $5.3 trillion in mortgages, about half of the total mortgage debt in the U.S. Freddie Mac is scheduled to sell about $3 billion in short-term notes today.
Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plummeted last week amidst investor scares, but saw a sharp rise before the bell today. Fannie shares rose 22 percent to $12.50 while Freddie shares climbed 27.1 percent to $9.85.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds! Be sure to check out our sister sites. For more information, visit www.hedgeconetworks.com
