Fidelity National Financial (FNF) said Thursday after market close that it had completed its planned $2.9 billion acquisition of mortgage tech and service provider Lender Processing Services (LPS). The question remains what will stay at LPS and what will go.
"We are excited to consummate the LPS acquisition and bring its market-leading technology solutions and services back into the FNF family," said FNF Chairman William P. Foley, II.
"This combination creates a larger, broader, more diversified and recurring revenue base for FNF and makes us the nation's leading provider of transaction services and technology solutions to the real estate and mortgage industries."
Foley also cited "future complementary acquisition opportunities" in the mortgage technology business, as Fidelity National looks to expand its footprint via the LPS acquisition.
"This is a strategic acquisition that we believe will provide a platform for future growth opportunities that can continue to create significant value for our shareholders," Foley said in a statement.
The total consideration paid for a share of LPS common stock will be $37.14, consisting of $28.10 in cash and $9.04 in FNF common stock, with the value of the stock component calculated as the product of the average FNF common stock price of $31.459 and the Exchange Ratio of 0.28742, the company said in a statement. FNF will issue approximately 25.9 million shares of its common stock to former LPS stockholders as the stock component of the total consideration.
On Christmas Eve, federal regulators green-lighted the acquisition after reaching a settlement with Fidelity over anti-trust claims in the state of Oregon involving the proposed merger of LPS and Fidelity title plants held in the state.
Fidelity also announced on December 10 that it was seeking what it called "strategic options" for non-core businesses under the title giant's corporate umbrella. While the company did not specify a timeline or what assets it might be looking to divest, market observers largely viewed the announcement as tied to the LPS acquistion — as a number of business lines at LPS and Fidelity replicate one another.
Executives close to the FNF/LPS deal have told HousingWire that executives at Fidelity see the LPS merger bringing $11 million or more in so-called synergies to the title giant's business, meaning some operational units across the two companies are similar to each other and likely redundant. It's unclear how Fidelity plans to manage the integration of these similar lines of business.
LPS was originally spun off from a separate Fidelity spin-off, Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS) in July 2008. The purchase by Fidelity effectively brings LPS back to the company that it once was spun off from.
