Fir Tree Partners Commences Cash Tender Offer For Certain Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Subject To The Proposed $4.5 Billion JPMorgan Chase RMBS Settlement

NEW YORK, Jan. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Fir Tree Partners, a private investment firm, through its affiliate FT RMBS, LLC, today commenced a cash tender offer for certain Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities ("RMBS") that are subject to the proposed $4.5 billion JPMorgan Chase/Institutional Investor RMBS Settlement announced last November (the "JPM Settlement").

"We believe Fir Tree is offering a better recovery with a more certain payment outcome on a much faster timeline for the RMBS subject to our tender than the proposed JPM Settlement," said Clinton Biondo, a managing director at Fir Tree Partners.  "Holders will get their money now rather than waiting for the settlement pay-out, which could potentially take months or years, if it happens at all."

All of the RMBS trusts subject to Fir Tree's tender offer are involved in active litigations against JPMorgan for breaches of representations and warranties made by JPMorgan regarding the credit quality and characteristics of the loans it sold to these trusts.  Fir Tree funds are currently acting as directing holders in all of these litigations except that involving the JPMAC 2006-WMC4 trust.  Fir Tree intends to seek to continue these litigations, and to exclude all of the RMBS subject to its tender offer from the JPM Settlement, irrespective of the outcome of the tender offer.

"For the RMBS subject to our tender, our offer is a current, fixed alternative to the 'to-be-determined' JPM Settlement that may or may not occur at some future time," Biondo said.  "Our offer gives holders an opportunity to exchange the uncertainty of future actions for the certainty of a fixed payment that we believe is higher than the recovery under the current proposed JPM Settlement.  We urge holders to make their own decision based on their own evaluation of available information."

The tender offer is scheduled to expire at 11:59pm EST on February 19, 2014, unless the offer is extended.  The full terms, conditions and other details of the offer are set forth in the Offer to Purchase.  Holders of the RMBS listed above should contact Chip Wheeler of Sea Port Group Securities, LLC, the dealer-manager for the offer, at (305) 695-2000 or [email protected] for more information and to request a copy of the Offer to Purchase.

About Fir Tree Partners
Fir Tree Partners, founded in 1994 and located in New York, NY (HQ) and Miami, FL, is a private investment firm, which manages assets on behalf of leading endowments, foundations, public and private pension funds and other institutional and private investors.  Fir Tree invests worldwide in public and private companies and real estate across a wide variety of sectors and securities.

SOURCE Fir Tree Partners