Ellington Financial To Acquire Great Ajax; Great Ajax Up In Pre-market

(RTTNews) - Ellington Financial Inc. (EFC) a Real Estate Investment Trust said on Monday that it agreed to buy Great Ajax Corp. (AJX) another REIT.

On conclusion of the deal, shareholders of Ellington Financial would be owning about 84 percent of the combined company while Great Ajax stockholders will hold approximately 16 percent.

Laurence Penn, Ellington CEO commented, "We are extremely excited about the opportunity to add a significant portfolio of strategic assets, including over $1 billion of highly creditworthy first-lien residential RPL and NPL investments at attractive prices."

The combined company will operate as Ellington Financial Inc.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2023.

Under the agreement terms, each share of Great Ajax will be converted into 0.5308 shares of Ellington Financial common stock or around 12.5 million shares of Ellington Financial.

The closing price of Ellington Financial's common stock on the New York Stock exchange on June 30, represents an offer price of $7.33 per share of Great Ajax common stock. This is a premium of approximately 19 percent to the closing price of Great Ajax on the same date.

Ellington Financial's CEO Laurence Penn will continue to lead the combined company.

In pre-market activity, shares of Ellington Financial are trading at $13.60 down 1.45% or $0.20 on the New York Stock Exchange and shares of Great Ajax are trading at $6.65 up 8.48% or $0.52