00:00:00 Speaker A
The Trump administration is planning to take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public later this year, according to The Wall Street Journal. The plans reportedly being discussed would involve selling between 5 and 15% of their stock, valuing the companies at roughly $500 billion. It’s unclear whether the mortgage giants would IPO as one company or two separate entities. Of course, the two have been under government control since the 2008 financial crisis. It’s unclear if they will remain under government conservatorship. That is something that has been sort of left vague. And what’s new in this report here is the $30 billion that could be raised and the potential timeline here that the Journal is reporting on, that it could potentially happen later this year. Now, folks that we have spoken with, who have watched this situation closely, and who have tracked the government sponsored enterprises for years, have said that this is a highly complicated potential transaction here. So they might question the idea that this could happen this year on that short of a timeline. I’ve heard more years-long timelines with regards to bringing Fannie and Freddie public here. So we’ll have to see how this indeed does all play out. But we are seeing the shares reacting of those two entities, Fannie and Freddie, both up, 3% for Freddie Mac, about 4 and a half percent for Fannie Mae. We’ll continue to track it and bring you any further developments as we get them.
