Blackstone Pays PHH

MT. LAUREL, NJ (AP) — PHH Corp. said Friday it received a $50 million fee from Blackstone Capital, whose deal to purchase PHH recently collapsed due to difficulties in getting financing.

Blackstone and a unit of General Electric Co. agreed to buy mortgage lender PHH in March for about $1.69 billion, but in September Blackstone said it might face a financing shortfall of up to $750 million because of tightening credit markets. The deal was called off earlier this week.

PHH has agreed to pay up to $4.5 million of the fees of the third-party consultants Blackstone retained in connection with the transactions.

Shares of PHH hit a multiyear low of $15.97 on a down day in the markets and closed the session off 87 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $15.98.