Recent mergers, acquisitions & other corporate activity
By COCO SALAZAR
2/28/2006

As a large Canadian mortgage franchise operation readies itself for expansion in the U.S., one of the biggest American banks announced it will restate income upward.

Arkansas-based American Mortgage Associates Inc. confirmed to MortgageDaily.com that it moved its headquarters from Fayetteville to Bentonville, where it has been at for one week.

MortgageBrokers.com Inc. announced Monday it acquired Your Mortgage Connection, which is comprised of more than 33 independent, licensed mortgage brokers, and expects to generate $350 million in mortgage origination volume in 2006.

"We believe this acquisition will provide us with immediate top-line growth of $3.8 million in annual gross revenues and an additional mortgage origination volume opportunity," said MortgageBrokers owner Alex Haditaghi in the announcement.

Because Your Mortgage Connection currently serves some Toronto, Canada-based RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada franchisees, MortgageBrokers' "unified platform provides us with a unique opportunity to substantially expand our business through cross-marketing, providing additional resources and gaining greater access to desirable real estate markets in Canada and soon in the U.S the merger creates tremendous synergies with our long-term licensing and marketing agreement with RE/MAX."

The Bank of Georgia received a loan guarantee from the Overseas Private Investment Corp. that will enable it to provide residential mortgage lending. The guarantee by Overseas Private is supporting a $10 million loan facility by WorldBusiness Capital Inc.

The Federal Reserve approved for Sky Financial Group Inc.'s request to acquire up to 10 percent of the voting shares of LNB Bancorp Inc. -- and indirectly acquire an interest in the Lorain National Bank.

The transaction must be consummated before June, according to the Fed's approval order document.

American Mortgage Acceptance Co. announced its chief operating officer, John Garth, will be stepping down from his position the end of the first quarter to pursue other opportunities.

"John was a valued member of the [America Mortgage] team and we will be sorry to see him leave," said, Marc D. Schnitzer, company president, in an announcement. "While we are actively searching for a new head of loan originations for [American Mortgage], we do not anticipate any disruption in the execution of [American Mortgage's] business plan."

Bank of America said it will restate financial statements going back to 2002 to adjust the accounting for certain derivative transactions used in its hedging strategies to manage interest rate risk and foreign exchange exposure.

The restatement, which relates to Statement of Financial Accounting Standards 133, will increase earnings by a cumulative $345 million and adjust shareholders' equity to be adjusted upward by $308 million, or less than 1 percent, as of Dec. 31, 2005.

"The interpretations of how to apply SFAS 133, a quite complex standard, continue to evolve,” said Alvaro de Molina, Bank of America chief financial officer. "In light of recent interpretations, we reviewed our accounting treatment of certain hedge transactions and determined a restatement would assure that our financial statements adhere to the most recent guidance for accounting treatment of hedge transactions under SFAS 133."

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