Houlihan Lokey Advises Mr. Cooper Group

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Mr. Cooper Group Inc. has sold Title365 to Blend Labs, Inc. for $500 million. The transaction closed on June 30, 2021.

Mr. Cooper (NASDAQ:COOP) provides quality servicing, origination, and transaction-based services related principally to single-family residences throughout the United States with operations under its primary brands: Mr. Cooper® and Xome®. Mr. Cooper is one of the largest home loan servicers in the country focused on delivering a variety of servicing and lending products, services, and technologies.

Title365 is a national title insurance and settlement services provider, founded in 2009 on a commitment to deliver industry-changing solutions for faster turnaround of title, escrow, and default services. Title365 is a division of Xome, a real estate services company providing integrated end-to-end solutions designed to solve the unique business challenges faced by mortgage servicers and lenders. Xome leverages data exchange capabilities and operational expertise across title, valuations, auction, and field services to provide intelligent recommendations throughout the entire real estate and loan life cycle.

Blend helps lenders streamline the customer journey for any banking product from application to close. Its digital lending platform is used by Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and over 285 other leading financial institutions to acquire more customers, increase productivity, and deepen customer relationships. The company enables customers to process more than $4 billion in mortgages and consumer loans per day, helping millions of consumers get into homes and gain access to the capital they need to lead better lives.

The Blend and Title365 combination will create a digital home-buying experience, including a best-in-class digital closing and settlement experience, providing lenders and consumers with maximum flexibility and choice. Title365's services will be integrated with Blend's cloud-based platform, which already enables better service and a more secure workflow for consumers along with easier collaboration among lenders, settlement teams, and consumers on closing fees and other critical information.

Pursuant to the terms of the transaction, Blend’s consideration for Title365 consists of $450 million in cash and a 9.9% ownership interest retained by Mr. Cooper Group, subject to certain adjustments.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to Mr. Cooper.