The parent of residential mortgage lender Stearns Lending LLC has filed for bankruptcy after agreeing with majority owner Blackstone Group LP to a debt-restructuring plan that will erase more than $180 million in bond debt from its balance sheet, the Wall Street Journal reported. Stearns Holdings LLC, based in Santa Ana, Calif., filed for chapter 11 protection today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, listing assets and liabilities each in the range of $1 billion and $10 billion. Blackstone has agreed to pump $60 million in new money into the mortgage lender as part of the balance-sheet restructuring, which also includes commitments of $1.5 billion from warehouse lenders. Blackstone’s private-equity arm purchased a majority stake in Stearns in 2015. Stearns has about $184 million in outstanding bonds that mature next August and sold most of its mortgage-servicing rights last year to pay down a portion of its bond debt.
