Intercontinental Exchange To Buy Majority Stake In MERS

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) recently entered into an agreement with MERSCORP Holdings, Inc. to acquire a majority equity position in Mortgage Electronic Registrations Systems, Inc. (collectively known as “MERS”), which is owned by the latter.

This apart, the companies joined forces to enhance and update the MERS System.

MERSCORP Holdings is a privately owned corporation, which owns and operates MERS System and all its products. MERS System is a national electronic registry that follows the changes in servicing rights and beneficial ownership interest in U.S.-based mortgage loans.

The deal will emphasize MERSCORP Holdings’ commitment to boost value of its member institutions. The association with Intercontinental Exchange will further assist the company to support to MERS’ operations as a national mortgage registry. MERSCORP Holdings believes that the efficiency and efficacy of MERS will be substantially boosted by the financial support and resources from the securities exchange.

The combined efforts of Intercontinental Exchange and MERSCORP Holdings will highly benefit the U.S. residential mortgage finance market. Also, this transaction will augment the acquirer’s data and technology expertise in diverse, regulated markets. Intercontinental Exchange expects to add its robust track record of innovation, governance and operational execution to MERS to further evolve the mortgage market infrastructure.

The deal is expected to close at the end of June. Per the agreement, the acquirer will reconstruct the MERS System infrastructure and is anticipated to shift MERS System’s operation to its own data center in the first half of 2018. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Intercontinental Exchange has always eyed growth opportunities through acquisitions and strategic investment and the recent endeavor is no exception. Also, these endeavors testify a solid capital position that helps the company to pursue developments to ramp up its growth profile.

Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

Currently, Intercontinental Exchange carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Some better-ranked stocks from the finance sector are Markel Corp. (NYSE:MKL) , NMI Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:NMIH) and National General Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NGHC) . Each of these stocks sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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