Ellington Financial, Great Ajax announce mutual termination of merger agreement

Ellington Financial (EFC) and Great Ajax Corp. (AJX) jointly announced they have agreed to terminate the merger agreement announced on July 3, effective immediately. “The termination was approved by both companies’ boards of directors after careful consideration of the proposed merger and the progress made towards completing the proposed merger. In addition, Ellington Financial has agreed to pay Great Ajax $16M of which $5M is payable in cash and $11M was paid as consideration for approximately 1.666 million shares of Great Ajax common stock, which was purchased at a per share price of $6.60. Ellington Financial will now hold approximately 6.1% of Great Ajax’s stock. In addition, an affiliate of the external manager of Ellington Financial owned 273,983 shares of Great Ajax common stock as of June 30, 2023. Ellington Financial remains a securitization joint venture partner as well. The two companies intend to continue to work together on mortgage loan opportunities,” the companies stated.