HomeStreet says board determined DUS price proposal was inadequate

HomeStreet responded to Blue Lion Capital Letters to Shareholders. “In several recent letters to our Board of Directors and shareholders written by Chuck Griege, managing partner of Blue Lion Capital, he has proposed the Company sell our FNMA Delegated Underwriter and Servicer business (per Griege the “DUS license”) and related loan servicing portfolio (together our “DUS Business”) and utilize the gain and proceeds to sell certain low yielding loans and reduce borrowings,” said HomeStreet chairman and CEO Mark Mason. “In these letters Mr. Griege has stated that the value of our DUS Business is “between $100 million and $150 million.” In his most recent letter Mr. Griege stated that “HMST has received at least one letter of intent from an interested buyer for the DUS license and MSRs and believe(s) that it meets the ($100 million) valuation threshold. . .” On September 15, 2023, the Company received an unsolicited non-binding written proposal to purchase our DUS Business (including our related loan servicing portfolio carried at $32 million on June 30, 2023) from a third party group for $57 million (the “DUS Purchase Proposal”). One of the members of this third party group was recommended to us by Mr. Griege in a prior letter to our Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors and management have analyzed the DUS Purchase Proposal and determined that the price proposed was inadequate in relation to the resulting benefit and value of the DUS Business to our Company and as such a sale of our DUS Business at this price was not in the best interests of the Company.”