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Arcapita Group Holdings<\/strong>, a Bahraini investment firm, has acquired a controlling stake in large independent appraisal management company Nationwide Property and Appraisal Services<\/strong> for an undisclosed price. <\/p>\n The deal, which was announced Monday, gives Arcapita an AMC that serves mortgage lenders in all 50 states, has a network of over 15,000 licensed appraisers, and grossed $144 million in revenue in 2021. <\/p>\n Nationwide has been under the umbrella<\/a> of Corridor Capital<\/strong>, a lower middle market private equity firm, since 2016. Corridor will retain a stake in Nationwide, which claims to have more than 100 lenders and 21 of the top 25 wholesale lenders in the country as clients.<\/p>\n “We were attracted by Nationwide’s highly cash generative business, experienced management team, and strong base of clients across the country,” Arcapita CEO Atif Abdulmalik said in a statement. “Close to 50% of Nationwide’s customers have maintained their relationship with the company for over six years, highlighting the longevity of its customer relationships, and the company benefits from a free cash flow conversion rate of over 99%.”<\/p>\n Nationwide, led by Sri Velamati and purportedly the second-largest AMC in the country, itself has been acquisitive in recent years. The AMC has acquired five other companies since Corridor bought a stake in Nationwide in 2016. In June, Nationwide acquired Portland, Oregon-based First Choice Appraisal Management<\/strong>, expanding its reach into the Pacific Northwest. <\/p>\n Other large financial firms are also putting money into the appraisal management space, which is highly fractured. <\/p>\n In September, appraisal management company Class Valuation<\/strong>, a subsidiary of investment firm Gridiron Capital<\/strong>, acquired Kansas City, Missouri-based Pendo Management<\/strong> for an undisclosed sum. And in October, private holding group StoicLane<\/strong> acquired control of the appraisal management company\u00a0Lender\u2019s Valuation Services (LVS)<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The appraisal industry has been a focus of the Biden administration. The Department of Housing and Urban Development<\/strong> formed a task force to root out bias<\/a> in appraisal, and the Appraisal Subcommittee issued a scathing report<\/a> last week that concluded the appraisal industry was essentially self-regulated and suffers from numerous structural problems. <\/p>\n Further, a report issued by Fannie Mae<\/strong> in late January concluded that Black borrowers refinancing their home on average received a slightly lower appraisal value relative to automated valuation models (AVMs); homes owned by white borrowers were more frequently overvalued than homes owned by Black borrowers; and six states \u2013 Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama \u2013 accounted for nearly 50% of the overvalued homes of white owners in majority-Black neighborhoods.<\/p>\n HousingWire in June published<\/a> a longform examination of the appraisal industry’s unconventional \u2013 and trying \u2013 relationship between appraisers and appraisal management companies. <\/p>\n The post One of the largest appraisal management companies just got acquired<\/a> appeared first on HousingWire<\/a>.<\/p>\n