Recovering Wentworth raises $252M
The firm has doubled employment, to 140, since emerging from bankruptcy
JG Wentworth, the Bryn Mawr firm that buys annuities and structured legal settlements from consumers for ready cash, says it's completed its first securitization fundraising since going through bankruptcy reorganization last year.
Wentworth sold $208 million of Class A notes rated AAA by Moody's Investor Service, paying 5.55%, and $26.5 million of A2-rated Class B notes, at 9.31%, keeping $17.2 million in higher-risk residuals, chief investment officer Stefano Sola told me. No credit enhancements on the notes, which were backed by settlements and annuities Wentworth purchased. Sola joined the firm last fall after serving as a managing director at Swiss Re in New York.
Sola told me employment at JG Wentworth has risen to 140, from a low of 65 during the 2008-09 financial crisis, but still below its pre-crisis peak of 200. Wentworth has been owned since 2006 by JLL Partners Inc., New York.