Mortgage-Related IPO Filing: Ellie Mae (ELLI)

If you thought any of the “Mae” sounding names were all dead, guess again.  We have one coming as an initial public offering, although this is not a government agency.  An IPO filing from Friday came from a firm called Ellie Mae, Inc. The company hosts an electronic mortgage origination network in the United States to streamline and automate the mortgage origination process electronically, connecting approximately 55,000 mortgage professionals to the mortgage lenders, investors and service providers throughout the origination and funding process of residential mortgages.

The filing is up to $86,250,000.00 in common stock, with an undisclosed amount coming from existing holders and an undisclosed amount being sold by the company.  For 2009, Ellie Mae listed is revenues as $37.7 million and net income as $1.7 million. Its main product is Encompass.

In 2009, over 2.8 million residential mortgage applications were initiated over the Ellie Mae Network, and the firm believes that this represents approximately 20% of the total U.S. residential mortgage market.

The underwriting group is huge: Goldman Sachs, William Blair, Keefe Bruyette & Woods, Macquarie Capital, Piper Jaffray, and ThinkEquity.  Ellie Mae has the proposed ticker of “ELLI” on the New York Stock Exchange.

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JON C. OGG