Santa Ana-based mortgage lender Stearns Holdings LLC has agreed to sell a majority stake to the Blackstone Group LP, a global asset manager in New York.
Financial terms of the deal and details on the percentage of ownership sold weren’t disclosed.
Stearns Holdings is the parent company of Stearns Lending LLC, which provides wholesale and retail mortgage loans and other services.
Stearns Lending is ranked the top wholesale lender in the U.S. by industry publication Inside Mortgage Finance.
It has more than 1,700 employees and notched $521.7 million in revenue last year, representing a 250% growth over three years that again landed the company on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S.
Stearns Lending was founded in 1989 by Glenn Stearns, who serves as chairman. He will “retain a significant ownership stake” in the company, according to a statement.
Blackstone, which provides private equity, real estate, hedge funds and other financial services, had $333 billion in assets under management at the end of the second quarter.
The publicly traded company has about $41 billion in market capitalization.
