PMC leads $200 million deal.

Last October, Pryor, McClendon, Counts & Co. (PMC) was awarded a $200 million mortgage-backed securities offering from the Resolution Trust Corp. (RTC), making it the first black-owned investment banking firm to be assigned a lead underwriting position by a federal agency. The deal represents a significant step by the RTC (which is charged with disposing of $100 billion in savings and loans assets), toward providing business opportunities for minority-owned companies, a procedure mandated by the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989. (See "The World's Biggest Fire Sale," June 1991.) PMC's swift, successful handling of the offering may serve as a catalyst to get more minority firms into the mortgage-backed securities market--the nation's second largest capital market.

As lead underwriter, PMC assumes the risk of buying the securities from the RTC and selling them to investors. The securities were the latest in a series of RTC Residential Mortgage Securities bonds issued in conjunction with the savings and loan bailout. The bonds are backed by single-family, adjustable rate mortgages from Trustbank Savings in Virginia and eight Texas S&Ls. They were sold to about 20 investors.

"Being lead underwriter gives us greater access to the mortgage-backed securities market," says PMC Senior Vice President Donna Sims Wilson. Wilson, who managed the deal, hopes her firm will continue to benefit from the RTC. She says that because of the volume of work that is available, the opportunity is open to other firms as well. "Every month for the next four years, [the RTC] is going to sell $2.5 billion worth of mortgaged-backed securities."

New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co. acted as co-manager for the deal. Both Merrill and PMC are part of a syndicate of seven minority and seven majority firms that handle mortgage-backed securities for the RTC. Prior to this offering, majority firms rotated as lead underwriters for such deals, with minority firms serving as co-managers.