Walter Investment Management, an asset manager, mortgage servicer and mortgage portfolio owner, has entered into a definitive agreement with Marathon Asset Management to purchase Marix Servicing, a mortgage servicer.

Marix, based in Arizona, is focused on default management, borrower outreach, loss mitigation, liquidation strategies, component servicing and specialty servicing.

The combined platform will be one of the US's top ten servicers of sub-prime mortgages.

"We believe Marix will serve to both accelerate and broaden our portfolio acquisition opportunities," says Mark J. O'Brien, Walter Investment's chairman and chief executive officer. "We view the acquisition of Marix as an opportunity to expand our business on numerous fronts. Marix not only provides us with a superb mortgage servicing platform with a nationwide footprint, it also provides an independent revenue stream and a well developed information technology infrastructure, including proprietary applications which can be leveraged by both organisations."

Walter Investment Management, Marix and Marathon will maintain a close relationship after the closing, including the use by Marathon of Marix for the servicing of residential mortgage assets on an exclusive basis, participation by Marathon on Marix's advisory council and the continuation of pre-existing credit agreements provided to Marix by Marathon through March 2011.

The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to close within 30 to 60 days.

After closing, the transaction is expected to be slightly dilutive to Walter Investment's 2010 earnings per share, but is expected to be accretive to earnings per share in 2011.

"We believe Walter Investment is the ideal company to partner with in this transaction," says Bruce Richards, chief executive officer of Marathon. "Over the past three and a half years, we have built Marix into a premier residential mortgage special servicer. Now, by combining the company with Walter Investment's platform and substantial resources, Marix will have the ability to further this tradition of excellence and growth. We look forward to remaining closely involved with Marix going forward through our strategic relationship with the company and through our role on the company's advisory council. In addition, we're pleased that our mortgage investment businesses will continue to benefit from the strong servicing capabilities and industry insight of the combined entity under Walter Investment's leadership."