Subprime Lender Springleaf Plans $787 Million Mortgage-Bond Sale

Springleaf Finance Corp., the subprime lender that’s been raising cash to repay maturing debt by packaging older mortgages into bonds, plans to sell $787 million of home-loan securities.

The firm, which is mostly owned by Fortress Investment Group LLC, may sell the bonds this week, including $538.5 million of debt with AAA ratings, according to a person familiar with the offering who asked not to be identified because the terms aren’t set. Some notes created in the $900 million securitization aren’t being offered, the person said.

Springleaf issued mortgage bonds backed by older loans in two deals totaling $1.4 billion earlier this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fortress purchased 80 percent of the Evansville, Indiana-based lender, then known as American General Finance Inc., from American International Group Inc. (AIG) in 2010 for $125 million, taking $17 billion of debt off the bailed-out insurer’s balance sheet.

Springleaf exited real-estate lending at the start of this year to focus on other consumer financing and its insurance operations, it said in March in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jody Shenn in New York at jshenn@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net