Content area
Full Text
Centex Corporation is a major home-building company, but there is another major company under its corporate roof-CTX Mortgage. Its CEO says the mortgage firm is the fourth largest nonbank-owned player in the industry, and it is looking to grow its retail shop.
AT SOME POINT IN THEIR OPERATING HISTORIES, MOST OF THE TOP home builders in the country have created an affiliated mortgage company to ease potential buyers into newly created homes. Centex Corporation, the Dallas-based home builder, is no different in that respect. In 1973, the company unveiled CTX Mortgage to provide financing for houses built by Centex Homes. * However, the similarities between CTX Mortgage and other home builder-owned and -operated mortgage companies end there. CTX Mortgage is one of the few-if not the only-third-party or "spot" lender in that group. In the 25 years CTX Mortgage has been in existence, it has evolved into one of the country's largest mortgage companies. * "If you look at the top 20 mortgage companies in regard to retail originations, we rank as No. 11," says John Matthews, chairman and chief executive officer of CTX Mortgage. "When it comes to the independents [nonbank-owned], we are No. 4. CTX Mortgage is a major company."
Centex, of course, is mostly known as a home builder, and in terms of residential construction it is one of the largest in the nation. But its stellar reputation as a builder of single-family homes obscures the fact that it is a much deeper corporation. Since its founding in 1950, Centex has become a multi-- industry company, operating in five principal business segments: home building, investment real estate, financial services, construction products and contracting and construction services.
Its financial services division is dominated by CTX Mortgage, but that grouping also includes the financing of manufactured homes, home-equity and subprime lending, and the sale of title and various insurance coverages.
For the fiscal year ended March 31, 1999, Centex showed revenues of $5.155 billion. Of that, the financial services division contributed $436.3 million. Also for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1999, Centex's operating earnings reached $443 million, of which $92.3 million came from financial services. Breaking those numbers down further, the number of loans originated by CTX Mortgage reached 76,738 and...